More passengers travelling to visit their families, for health reasons, for business and some even for a casual visit has resulted in a spike in the number of people taking international flights through the “air bubble” arrangement.
“Air bubble” is an arrangement between two countries to allow passengers to travel, in the absence of regular international flights. Officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) say from about 90 flights in September, the number has risen to 190 and from 10,000 passengers in September, the number ballooned to 21,000 last month by the “air bubble” flights alone. There are a number of flights from Chennai to Dubai, Qatar, Kuwait and London and Maldives, the officials said. “Most of them are travelling to the West Asia. Earlier, people would travel only if there was a death in the family or they wanted to return home. Now, we see people heading to spend time with their daughter or son abroad or the children coming down here to visit their parents,” an official said. Apart from the ‘air bubble’ flights, there are Vande Bharat flights, chartered flights and many non-scheduled flights to and from several destinations.
