Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in a circular released on Wednesday, July 1, 2021, mentioned that the ban on international commercial flights has been extended until July 31, 2021. As per the announcements made earlier, the ban was supposed to end on June 30, 2021. after a long gap of 15-months.
The circular was shared on DGCA's official Twitter handle, and read, "In partial modification of circular dated 26-6-2020, the competent authority has further extended the validity of the circular issued on the subject cited above regarding Scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hrs IST of 31st July 2021."
— DGCA (@DGCAIndia) June 30, 2021This decision is not applicable for services like dedicated cargo flights and flights under the bilateral air bubble pacts with select countries. DGCA has mentioned that these will continue to operate as per the schedule
"However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis," the circular added.
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The ban was placed on March 23, 2020, and since then the services have been suspended in India due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. However, selected flights are being operated under special services as per the Vande Bharat Mission initiative. The services were announced last year in May and have been operational for selected countries.
The Government of India, in 2020, signed bilateral air bubble arrangements with 27 countries, which included Bhutan, France, Germany, Kenya, Kuwait, Nigeria, Rwanda, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, etc. Only fights to these selected countries are being operated with caution.
The dates for the ban to end have been revised multiple times, however, with newer COVID-19 variants, the government has been taking precaution and strict measures with the passengers.
Also Read: As COVID-19 cases decline, flights to and from Mumbai witnesses an increase
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