New Delhi: Under Air Bubble Agreement, national carrier Air India on Friday announced that it will operate flights between India-Germany from October 26 to March 28.  Flyers can book their ticket on the airline’s official website, call centres or booking offices.

“Air India will operate flights between India-Germany from 26th Oct’ 20 to 28th March ’21. Bookings open through AI website, Booking offices, call centre and Authorised Travel Agents”, tweeted the airline.

Recently, issues had occurred regarding the number of flights being operated by Lufthansa and Air India between the two countries.

These issues lead to a virtual breakdown of the previous agreement, and consequently, Lufthansa and Air India had to cancel their flights between India and Germany.

“Lufthansa had applied for the continuation of special flights it was granted to operate until the end of September. This application process is necessary since India has, so far, not accepted the invitation by the German government to discuss details regarding a temporary travel agreement between both countries,” the airline had said in a statement.

The DGCA had said India formalised an air bubble with Germany in July this year. “However, there are restrictions in place for Indian nationals desiring to travel to Germany which was putting Indian carriers at a significant disadvantage resulting in inequitable distribution of traffic in favour of Lufthansa,” the DGCA stated.

“As against Indian carriers operating 3-4 flights a week, Lufthansa operated 20 flights a week. In spite of this disparity we offered to clear 7 flights a week for Lufthansa which was not accepted by them. Negotiations continue,” it had noted.

Scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus lockdown. However, special flights have been permitted under “air bubble” arrangements India has formed with 17 countries, including Germany.