India Suspends Flights From UK Till December 31

The Indian government has temporarily suspended all flights originating from the UK to India till 11:59 pm, 31st December, considering the emergence of a new coronavirus strain in the UK. The order is slated to come into effect from 11.59 pm, 22nd December, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has said.

This suspension will start after 11.59 pm of December 22 and consequently, flights from India to the UK shall also stand temporarily suspended during the above said period, it added.

Anyone arriving on transit flights via the UK before 22nd December, 23:59 hours will be subject to mandatory RTPCR test on arrival at Indian airports, the officials said.

Considering the prevailing situation in UK. Govt. of India has decided that all flights originating from UK to India to be suspended till 31st December 2020 (23.59 hours).

— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) December 21, 2020

As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 23.59 hrs) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned.

— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) December 21, 2020

Earlier in the day, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal requested the government to ban all flights from the UK. "New mutation of coronavirus has emerged in UK, which is a super-spreader. I urge central govt to ban all flights from UK immediately," he tweeted.

Responding to a question on the panic and a demand to ban flights from the UK, Vardhan told reporters, "I would say this to all that all these imaginary situations, imaginary talks, imaginary panic... don't involve yourself in this."

"The government is fully alert about everything. If you ask me, there is no reason to panic the way we are seeing in this press conference," the minister said.

A number of countries like Canada, Turkey, Belgium, Italy and Israel have banned flights from the UK as the British government warned that the potent new strain of the virus was "out of control" and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.