Regular international flight operation may resume from December 15: Ministry of Civil Aviation

Good news for international flyers! The central government is likely to allow regular international passenger services to and from India by mid-December this year. The Ministry of Civil Aviation in an important announcement said that international passenger flight services may get resumed from December 15, news agency ANI reported.

In view of the lingering danger of the spread of Coronavirus, the Ministry said that it will categorise the countries into three categories on the basis of risk of spread of Coronavirus. The countries will be classified into three categories on the basis of risk assessment conducted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW). The Ministry also clarified that separate capacity restrictions will be imposed on the flights travelling to different countries on the basis of their categorisation.

The international travel to and from India had come to a screeching halt last year when the central government imposed the complete lockdown banning internal as well as external travel in the country. After a few months of the first wave of Coronavirus, the government signed air bubble agreements with several countries to facilitate the travel of a limited number of flights to cater to select emergency situation passengers. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had recently extended the ban on the international air travel till November 30 in view of the Coronavirus pandemic. The selected number of flights that are flying out of India and coming to India are allowed by the competent authority on a case-to-case basis.

The tour and travel industry along with several NRIs have been demanding for resumption of the regular air travel from the country. With the recent announcement made by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, tourism sector is also expected to get a big fillip as more number of flights to different jurisdictions will give a boost to the sector along with reducing the air fare on such routes.