As many as 3,200 flights will be operated from India per week during this year's summer schedule which commenced from Sunday. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), 60 foreign airlines of 40 countries except China have been given the approval to operate 1783 departures per week to/from India while 1466 flights per week have been approved to 43 destinations in 27 countries for Indian carriers.
The ban on international scheduled flights was lifted on Saturday after more than two years. With the reopening of scheduled international flights, passengers will find airfares to certain flights drop and more options available to route their journeys.
The DGCA said that the Summer Schedule 2022 is effective from March 27, 2022, till October 29, 2022. A "scheduled" international air service is a series of flights that are operated by airlines as per the published timetable. However, there are a few new airlines which include India Salam Air, Air Arabia Abu Dhabi, Qantas, and American airlines, to begin airline operations with
India.
As per the approved schedule, IndiGo will operate 505 departures per week, followed by Air India at 361, Air India Express 340, SpiceJet at 130, GoAir (GoFirst now) at 74 and Vistara at 56.
The Indian carriers have been approved to operate to UAE, Kuwait, Singapore, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Qatar, Maldives, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Turkey, Malaysia, UK, France, Kenya, Germany, US, Canada, Myanmar, Australia, Israel, Bahrain, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Russia.
In a statement, IndiGo said that it will resume scheduled international flights on 150 plus routes in a phased manner during the next month. According to a statement from the airline, scheduled operations to destinations in Thailand have already commenced from March 27. The airline to operate international flights from Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Kozhikode, Kochi, Chandigarh, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangaluru.
"The international destinations include Dammam, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha, Bangkok, Phuket, Singapore, Colombo, Dubai, Kathmandu, Maldives, and Dhaka," it said. Scheduled operations on more than 150 routes will be restarted in a phased manner through the month of April, it noted.
In addition to these flights, IndiGo has also announced the commencement of bookings for flights to Muscat and Kuala Lumpur starting operations in May 2022 and, to Istanbul in June 2022.
Out of the approved schedule, Gulf-based carriers like Emirates will operate 170 departures per week, followed by Oman Air at 115, Air Arabia at 110, Qatar Airways at 99, Gulf Air at 82, Etihad Airways at 80, Saudi Arabian Airlines at 63 and Kuwait Airways
at 56.
Furthermore, Sri Lanka Airlines will operate 128 departures per week, Singapore Airlines at 65, British Airways at 49, Thai Airways at 36, Lufthansa German at 32, Malaysia Airlines at 30, Japan Air Lines at 22, Air France at 20, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines at 18 and Aeroflot Russian Airlines at 6.