Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 19: The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s central agency for aviation, has announced on Wednesday that the ban on scheduled commercial passenger flights will be extended till February 28. Air Bubble agreements and Mission Vande Bharat flights will continue to operate.
“Cargo flights will also continue to operate as per the previous arrangement. In partial modification of circular dated 26-11-2021, the competent authority has decided to extend the suspension of Scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hrs IST of 28th February, 2022,” read the DGCA circular.
Previously, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) decided on December 1 not to resume scheduled international flights from December 15, less than a week after declaring that the services will be resumed due to the growing threat of the new Omicron variant around the world.
Notably, scheduled international passenger services have been banned in India since March 23, 2020, due of the COVID-19. Special international flights, on the other hand, have been running under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020, and under bilateral “air bubble” agreements with a few countries from July 2020.
India has signed air bubble agreements with 32 nations, including the United States, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Bhutan, and France. Special international flights can be operated by their airlines between their boundaries under an air bubble pact between two governments.
