All international flights to remain suspended till July 15 but govt might allow certain flights on select routes

• The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Friday announced the cancellation of all international commercial passenger flights till July 15.
• It further added that “some international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case to case basis.”
• It has been almost three months since the Indian government grounded all international flights on March 25.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Friday announced that all international passenger flights till July 15 will be cancelled.The ministry said that the restriction would not apply to international cargo flights.

The ministry, however, added that “some international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case to case basis.”
It has been three months since the Indian government grounded all international flights on March 25. However, domestic flights were allowed to operate from May 25 with certain restrictions and precautions, but no decision was given for international flights.

This came after Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri earlier this week said that the government would take a decision on resuming commercial international flights only after other countries ease their restrictions on the entry of foreign nationals and allow incoming flights.

Earlier, in a series of tweets, Puri said that due to increasing demand for resumption of scheduled international flights by people who want to travel abroad due to compelling reasons, he reviewed the state of international flight operations around the world, but globally, the situation is far from normal.

He noted that due to the spread of coronavirus globally, most countries have less than 10% international operations because they are allowing entry only to their own citizens and have placed restrictions on foreign nationals. Many are allowing inbound flights from few countries but have also placed restrictions of quarantine or isolation, he added.

The government is also running the Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate Indians stranded abroad. So far the government has already evacuated over 187,939 passengers in 1,445 flights. The government also lifted restrictions for Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) cardholders who wish to travel on evacuation flights departing from the US and Canada.
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