MHA, aviation min to decide on global flights

The aviation and home affairs ministries will jointly decide on “further opening up of international air travel of passengers,” the Covid guidelines issued by the ministry of home affairs on Wednesday said. The guidelines will come into effect from.

Scheduled international flights were suspended on March 23 last year due to the pandemic. Since then, India has been allowed Vande Bharat Mission flights and has also formed air bubbles with over 20 countries. Bubbles are being created with more countries like Russia and talks are on with Singapore. All-cargo international flights are allowed and the DGCA approves flights on a case-to-case basis.

At present, airlines are allowed to deploy 80% of their pre-Covid levels of domestic operations. Air traffic within the skies (in terms of passengers) is back at 60% of pre-Covid level. India has been opening up its skies by following a strict Covid protocol . However, unlike domestic flights, the issue of resuming scheduled flights between two countries is something that has to be decided by both the countries.