India extends scheduled international flights ban till February 28
Travel Biz News —
India’s civil aviation body – Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has announced that the current ban on international scheduled flights will extend till February 28, 2022 , but cargo flights would be exempt from the extended ban.
According to DGCA statement ,the current flights under travel air bubble arrangements and Vande Bharat flights would remain unaffected from the ban and such flights would continue to operate as per the ongoing arrangements.
An official statement by DGCA states that, “The authority has decided to extend the suspension of Scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hrs IST of 28th February 2022.”
India, currently, has travel bubble arrangements with around 35 countries which include; Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Singapore, Saudi Arabia ,Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA) and Uzbekistan.
All scheduled international passenger flights were postponed from March 23, 2021, but India entered into air travel bubble arrangements with different countries to ease essential travelling last year.
India was planning to restart scheduled passenger flights from December 15, 2021 ,but the date was subsequently moved to January and now extended again to February, 2022, as Omicron infection numbers surge in the country.
India logged 3,17,532 new coronavirus infections, the highest in 249 days, on Wednesday (19 January).The country had reported 3,11,170 cases in a single day on May 15 last year.
A total of 4,87,693 deaths have been reported so far in India .
19 January ,2022
Image courtesy : Civil Aviation Ministry ,India
