India Extends Suspension Of International Flights till December 31st: DGCA

The Indian Civil Aviation Regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Wednesday announced that it has extended the suspension of all scheduled International commercial passenger flights to and from India till December 31st due to Covid-19 pandemic.

“ “In partial modification of circular dated 26-06-2020, the competent authority has further extended the validity of circular issued on the subject cited above regarding Scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hrs 1ST of 31St December, 2020.”,” a notification from the industry regulator said.

This restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA,” the order stated.

“However, International Scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis,” the statement added.

Those who want to travel abroad have to depend on flights of the countries which have signed air bubble arrangement with India. At this stage, India has established bilateral air bubble agreement with as many as 22 countries. These are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Maldives, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Tanzania, the UAE, the UK, Ukraine and the US.

Air India has also been operating Vande bharat Mission flights to repatriate Indians stranded abroad.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic,scheduled international passenger services have been suspended in India since March 23.