New Delhi: India’s civil aviation regulator, the DGCA, on Wednesday extended the ban on scheduled international commercial flights till February 28, 2022. At present, India suffers from a third Covid wave which is said to be driven by the Omicron variant.
All flights under Air Bubble agreements and Mission Vande Bharat 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 23:59 hours IST of 28th February 2022.
Earlier, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), on December 1, decided not to resume scheduled international flights from December 15, less than a week after announcing that it would restart the services amid the rising threat of the new Omicron variant across the globe.
However, special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May 2020 and under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected countries since July 2020.
(_Vinayak Barot)
