India opens travel bubble to Europe, but not to Australia

India is set to open its travel bubble to the UK and Germany this week, but Australia has been excluded because of its low intake of residents and citizens stranded across the world. “Australia is taking 5000-odd people from the world over. How can there be an air bubble with Australia?” an official asked, according to reports.

India had earlier reached agreements with the USA and France to open travel bubble between the countries.

It is learned that Indian Australians have largely been depending repatriation flights of India’s flag carrier Air India, which has been carrying passengers under the Vande Bharat Mission since May, to travel to and from India.

An ‘air bubble’ or ‘air corridor’ is a bilateral agreement signed between two countries to permit their airlines to fly to and from each other. These flights are not regular commercial operations, hence not open to every passenger.