NEW DELHI, Dec 30: The suspension of the scheduled international flight has been further extended by one more month till January 31, the civil aviation ministry said on Wednesday.
Scheduled international flights were suspended in India since March 23 in order to stop the spread of coronavirus. Special international flights operated within air bubbles arrangements with other countries since July.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday modified its order to extend the suspension on international flights till January 31, while all flight including the special flights to and from the United Kingdom has been banned till January 7.
The suspension comes in the wake of the discovery of cases of a new infectious strain of SARS-Cov-2, first detected in the United Kingdom.
The civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Wednesday said flights to UK would resume in a strictly regulated manner after January 7, 2021. “Decision has been taken to extend the temporary suspension of flights to & from the UK till 7 January 2021. Thereafter strictly regulated resumption will take place for which details will be announced shortly,” Puri said on Twitter.
The DGCA has exempted international cargo flights from the modified suspension order. The order also outlined that the suspension will not apply on flights specifically approved by the DGCA.
(Manas Dasgupta)