Resumption of international flights: Here's what we know so far

Soon after the announcement of the nationwide lockdown by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24, domestic flight operations were suspended. International flights to and from the country were banned even before the lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 was announced.

Some flights were later operated by the government in early May, under its Vande Bharat Mission, to repatriate Indians stranded overseas in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Gradually, as the country started easing out of the lockdown in a phased manner, the government announced a staggered resumption of domestic flights. Operations began on May 25, and contours of the new fare structure for flights from May 25 onward were laid down by Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. At the time, he had said that a small percentage of the total number of domestic flights will be operated at first, only to be increased later depending on initial experience.

However, international flights continue to remain suspended up until now. Earlier this month, the aviation minister had said that a decision regarding resumption of international travel can be taken in the coming months, even earlier, when domestic air traffic would reach 50-55 percent of its pre-COVID-19 capacity, and other states would be in the position to absorb more number of passengers coming in.

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While noting that by mid-July, the fourth phase of the Vande Bharat Mission repatriation exercise will be on, Puri has also hinted that while the mission itself would have scaled up further in its fourth phase, international operations will also begin.

The aviation ministry is also considering the prospect of establishing individual 'bilateral bubbles' with countries. This came after the US levelled allegations against the Indian government of engaging in "unfair and discriminatory practices" on charter air transportation services to and from India and issued an order requiring Indian air carriers to apply for authorisation prior to conducting charter flights.

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Following this, the ministry said," As we move from controlled and managed aviation evacuation of our citizens in different parts of the world and foreign nationals from India, we are now looking at the possibility of establishing bilateral arrangements. These evacuation flights which were primarily meant for the evacuation of our citizens from all over the world are now increasingly carrying Indians and citizens of other countries outbound to countries where they are normally resident." It did not, however, respond directly to allegations of the US Transportation Department.

 



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