Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Nov.26: India’s Civil Aviation Ministry said on Friday evening that scheduled international flights will resume on December 15, as reported by news agency PTI.
“The matter of resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services, to and from India, has been examined in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Health, and it has been decided… may be resumed from December 15,” PTI quoted an order from the Aviation Ministry.
Scheduled foreign flights were banned in March of last year, with the exception of repatriation services and flights delivering critical products, as the country entered a Covid lockdown.
With ‘air bubble’ agreements with other nations, restrictions were gradually removed as the caseload declined and vaccination coverage grew. There are now 28 such agreements in India.
Under such an agreement, member countries’ respective carriers can operate international passenger flights into each other’s borders, subject to specific criteria.
The decision to reopen scheduled international passenger operations comes as fears grow about a new coronavirus strain, the B.1.1.529 strain, which was initially discovered in South Africa.
Scientists have identified an alarmingly high number of mutations (50) in the new variety, including more than 30 on the crucial spike protein, which the virus uses to gain entrance to our body’s cells. Researchers are still unsure if this makes it more transmissible or fatal than previous variations.
Flights to and from six African nations, including South Africa, have already been banned by some countries, including the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Israel.
At this point, it is unknown whether any of those countries are on India’s ‘no-fly’ list.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged caution in the face of this new variety, emphasising the importance of further research to better understand the alterations.
Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Minister of Civil Aviation, said last week that the government was assessing the process of normalising international flight operations.
While the administration wished for things to return to normal, he stressed that precautions will be taken to prevent a new wave of coronavirus infections, especially since several large European countries have seen a frightening increase in daily new cases.
