In March 2020, it became apparent that international flights in India will not operate anytime soon. Since then, Air India has been operating repatriation flights. People were paying crazy money all the tickets they can for their emergency to fly back home, while an International flight India ban has been existing of sorts. In the meanwhile, other countries such as the USA started indicating their displeasure with Vande Bharat flights.
A new order has been passed by the Government of India, as a part of their plan to open up the lockdown. The new order notifies that international air travel opening up will be decided by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in consultation with India’s Ministry of Home Affairs.
This is a change in tonality and gave many people hoped that international flights will be immediately opened. Not happening so soon, I say. The world is closed at the moment, and I would believe international travel will also open gradually.
At the moment, India has ‘Air Bubble’ Agreements with 23 nations and certain other Vande Bharat flights. I gather this would be targetted to clarify to the other airlines operating to India about how long they should not be planning operations to India. The really bad news is, the decision is postponed, and there is no final timeline of opening up Commercial international aviation, and it could go on longer.
The DGCA has now put up a notification further extending the ban till February 2021. The Air Bubble flights and Vande Bharat flights are excluded from this notification.
Bottomline
There has been a lot of leniencies that has been put in place with the air-bubbles that have been set up for months. However, this does not permit everyone in India to go wherever they want whenever they want subject to being approved by the other country to enter their country. The only liberties are in travelling to the USA, UK and some other countries for now.
What do you make of this International Flight India ban?
Liked our articles and our efforts? Please pay an amount you are comfortable with; an amount you believe is the fair price for the content you have consumed. Please enter an amount in the box below and click on the button to pay; you can use Netbanking, Debit/Credit Cards, UPI, QR codes, or any Wallet to pay.
(Important: to receive confirmation and details of your transaction, please enter a valid email address in the pop-up form that will appear after you click the ‘Pay Now’ button. Even though the amount you enter has to be in INR, you may use an international card to process the transaction.)
We are not putting our articles behind any paywall where you are asked to pay before you read an article. We are asking you to pay after you have read the article if you are satisfied with the quality and our efforts.
Can I travel to USA through another country like Qatar with which India has a separate air bubble agreement?
@hiflyer you can travel to USA directly from India, not sure about how it would work via QR. I would imagine you would have to enter the country and wait for a few days if they are accepting guests.
Our minister does not want to work. Extending this he will sit idle & relax for another 1 month with vande barath & bubble. So ban flights…dont work sit & enjoy the ministry. Opening up all flights carry a lot of responsibility too. Which he or his team cant take as of now. So extend & sit idle as long as possible
It would be very useful if the honorable minister can help us understand the decision criterion for extending the flight ban.
It can’t be to prevent COVID; not so with a ‘bubble’ agreement with two of the worst (present-day) impacted countries (USA and UK).