International Flights Can Start From August 15th; Domestic Flights Will Be Increased To 70% Capacity (Updated)

Update: No, international flights are not starting from August 15th, as we speculated earlier. Union Minister of Civil Aviation held a press conference today, (July 16th), and informed that till August 1st, only air-bubbles will exist and a limited number of flights will be carried on, between specific countries.

Earlier..

A lot of speculations about international and domestic flights can convert into facts, after Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri’s addressal to the media at 2:30pm today (Thursday).

Until then, let’s speak of speculations. We will fill you in with all the details about what you can expect from Puri’s media addressal.

International Flights Might Resume from Mid-August

It is reported that the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has revealed the possibility of international flights to resume their services from mid-August.

As you know that currently, the state owned airline Air India holds a monopoly in international travel, which means for travelling anywhere outside India, Air India is your only option.

Thus sources have announced that speculations of international flights resuming from Mid-August have arouse, due to private airlines constantly requesting and pressurizing the Centre and ministry to resume international air travel, as loss of revenue for these private airlines have surmounted now.

Flights on Domestic Routes Might Increase

The Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had stated on June 20 that the ministry can start regular international flights when the domestic traffic reaches about 50-60% and other countries open up to international traffic.

Now, it is speculated that parallel to resumption of international flights in the coming month, the ministry may also increase the numbers of flights on several domestic routes, from the current 50% capacity to at least 60-70%.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has recently complied to resume flight operations on select routes as soon as the whole pandemic situation normalizes.

Bilateral Bubbles Talks with Several Countries

The Ministry of Aviation is allegedly in talks with resuming international flights via ‘bilateral bubbles’ talks with different countries.

Lets help you understand more on it.

According to recent reports from the Airports Authority of India, the Civil Aviation Ministry is focusing upon starting two way flights, termed as ‘Bilateral Bubbles’ or negotiations with countries like the US, France, Germany to open green corridors.

This means that if these Bilateral Bubbles talks are successful with different countries, airlines of each country will operate bilateral international flights with India.

As of now, we have had successful bilateral bubbles with UAE.

On June 23, Hardeep Singh Puri said, “This morning, I took a brief from the key point person (from the MOCA) who is negotiating with the countries, and he said that we are in constant touch. We are working on a consensus to restart international flights. This is going to be through air bubbles.”