All scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till July 15, the DGCA said today. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the restriction will not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA. However, it said that international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis.
It was on March 25 when India suspended all commercial passenger flights as a nationwide lockdown came into force amid the coronavirus crisis. There has been no decision on the reopening of the international flight services since. However, domestic flights were allowed from May 25. India began the Vande Bharat Mission May 6 onwards to help stranded people reach their destinations through international repatriation flights.
"The competent authority has decided that scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till 2359 hours IST of 15th July 2020. This restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA. However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis," the official note read.
Earlier this week, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said India was considering travel requests from several countries. He said India was also looking at the possibility of establishing individual "bilateral bubbles" like between India-US, India-France, India-Germany, India-UK. This month, Puri had said international travel would be opened once India's domestic traffic reaches about 50-60 percent and other countries open up to international traffic without present conditionalities.
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