Daijiworld Media Network - New Delhi (SHP)
New Delhi, Jun 26: The government in a circular released on Friday stated that the commercial international flights to and from India would remain suspended until July 15.
The order by the Director General of Civil Aviation in New Delhi said that the 'scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till 23:59 hours IST of 15th July 2020.'
However, the circular clarified that the restriction would not be applicable to international cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the aviation regulator.
Further, the official release also went ahead and announced that some of the international scheduled flights which operate on 'selected routes' may be allowed by the competent authorities on a case to case basis.
The repatriation process of the Vande Bharat Mission is currently in the third phase. It is considered to be one of the largest citizen repatriation programmes undertaken by any government to evacuate its citizens stranded in different countries following the suspension of international commercial airline operations due to coronavirus pandemic.
The regular international commercial flight operation was suspended on March 22 by the Indian government immediately before the first phase of nationwide lockdown was imposed as a precautionary measure to fight the spread of coronavirus.
On June 20, the civil aviation minister had said that the resumption of international flights depended on other countries receiving flights. However, he had expressed hope that the domestic flights will be restored to their full capacity by the end of the year.
Explaining the problem, the minister said that many countries had put conditions on the entry of people in their jurisdictions including restrictions on the entry of foreign nationals and this had left India with little option but to keep the flights suspended. Defending the decision, he provided examples of countries like the UK, France, China, UAE and Singapore.
India has managed to move a total of 182,313 passengers till June 24 under the Vande Bharat Mission, which commenced its operation on June 11, according to the latest data released by the ministry on Thursday. Air India group has operated a total of 1,414 flights till Thursday.
The government is also looking to explore the possibility of establishing bilateral arrangements with countries to allow their carriers to operate flights from India.