India suspends regular international flights till 31st January 2022
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday said that India will suspend its scheduled international passenger flights till January 31 next year. The DGCA on December 1 decided not to resume international passenger flights from December 15 amid growing concerns over the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. A week before this, it had announced that it was going to resume scheduled international flights.
The DGCA issued a circular on Thursday saying, “The competent authority has decided to extend the suspension of international commercial passenger services to and from India till January 31, 2022.” However, this suspension will not apply to all cargo flights approved by DGCA. The DGCA further said that international flights can be allowed on selected routes on a case-to-case basis. It also clarified that all international flights under the current ‘air bubble’ regime will continue till January 31.
Meanwhile, the DGCA has removed Singapore from the danger list. People coming from the danger list have to face additional restrictions including corona test at the airport itself under the corona protocol. In this, many countries including South Africa, Botswana and China fall in this danger list.
Due to the corona virus pandemic, regular international passenger services in India have been suspended with effect from 23 March 2020. However, special international flights are operating from May 2020 under the Vande Bharat Mission and from July 2020 under the bilateral ‘air bubble’ arrangement with select countries.
India has signed ‘Air Bubble’ agreements with 32 countries including US, UK, UAE, Kenya, Bhutan and France. Under the ‘air bubble’ agreement between two countries, their airlines can operate special international flights between their regions.
