- Saturday, April 27, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday (28) extended the ban on international passenger flights till October 31, 2021. The ban is not applicable to cargo flights and those that have been approved by the regulator.
All scheduled international flights to and from India were banned from March last year after the Covid-19 pandemic started. The flight ban has been continuously extended since then. However, India’s ministry of civil aviation has signed air-bubble agreements with several nations.
India currently has bio bubble pacts with around 25 nations, including the US, the UK, the UAE, Bhutan, Kenya and France.
As per the rules, those special international flights can be operated by their airlines following an air bubble pact between two countries, irrespective of the travel ban, which initially came into place on March 22, 2020.
On Monday, direct flights resumed between India and Canada after a gap of almost five months.
The US was set to reopen its doors for vaccinated air passengers from countries like India, China and the UK, among others, from early November. The US eased its travel advisory for India on August 16, 2021, lowering it to level two, which is considered safe.
The UK had moved India from its “red” to “amber” travel list from August 8.
The validity of Indian visa or stipulated period of stay for foreign nationals who have been stranded in India due to the pandemic has been extended till October 31.
Travellers from India have been allowed to fly to 49 cities across 18 nations since September under the air-bubble pacts.
