- Sunday, February 23, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Indian government has extended the ban on international commercial flights till July 31 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced in a circular on Wednesday (30).
The ban on scheduled commercial overseas flights were supposed to end on June 30, after a gap of nearly 15 months. The DGCA, which is a civil aviation watchdog, however, added that dedicated cargo flights and those under bilateral air bubble pacts with select countries will continue to operate.
“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 July, 2021,” the circular said under the subject ‘Travel and Visa restrictions related to Covid-19’.
“However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis,” it added.
Scheduled international passenger services have remained grounded in India since March 23, 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Special international flights though have been operating under the “Vande Bharat Mission” since May last year and under bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected nations since July.
Under air bubble pacts between two countries, special international flights can be run by their respective airlines between their territories.
