The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday extended the suspension of scheduled commercial international flight operations to and from India till December 31 in view of the coronavirus pandemic and planes will fly only on select routes on a case-to-case basis.
The restrictions are not applicable to international cargo operations and flights approved by the DGCA.
“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 December 31, 2020,” the DGCA said in a notification issued on Thursday.
The DGCA had earlier extended the suspension of international flight operations till November 30 and similarity allowed planes to fly on select routes.
However, special international flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May and under the bilateral “air bubble” arrangements with selected countries since July.
India has formed air bubble pacts with around 20 countries, including the US, the UK, the UAE, Kenya, Bhutan and France. Under an air bubble pact between two countries, special international flights can be operated by their airlines between their territories.
Earlier, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said regular international flight services could be resumed when the domestic traffic would reach about 50-60 per cent and other countries would open up to international traffic without present conditionalities.
Scheduled domestic passenger flights resumed in India on May 25 after a gap of two months amid the pandemic situation.
The air passenger traffic in India has more than halved in October in comparison to the year-ago period. The civil aviation regulator said that Indian airlines carried 52.7 lakh passengers in October, which is 57.2 per cent less than the air passenger traffic recorded in the same month last year.