Confirmed! International Flights From India Will Start From This Date; Tourists Visas Will Be Provided

And finally, after a long two years, international flights will soon start their operations. The government of India has announced that scheduled commercial international passenger services will resume their operations this month.

A tweet by Asian News International has confirmed that the government is all set to resume operations of scheduled commercial international passenger services to and from India. 

International Flights To Resume Operations This Month

The international flights will resume their operations on 27 March 2022. 

As per the tweet, “Govt of India has decided to resume scheduled commercial international passenger services to/from India from 27.03.2022. International operations shall be subject to strict adherence to Ministry of Health guidelines for international travel: Civil Aviation Ministry.”

In January, India announced its decision of suspending international flights till the end of February 2022, as the number of Omicron infected cases increased rapidly.

All international flights barring those on repatriation missions and carrying essential goods were stopped in March 2020 when the nationwide lockdown was imposed. Restrictions were lifted amidst a drop in active cases and growth in coverage of vaccination.

However, flights were to take place only with ‘air bubble’ arrangements negotiated with 28 other countries including the US, UK, UAE, and France. Under such arrangements, international passenger flights would operate between either country’s territory albeit with certain conditions.

Tourist Visas Granted From November 15?

As a preparatory step towards opening up to international flights, the government said that it would resume granting tourist visas from November 15.

Approving the resumption of international flights would also give a much needed shot in the arm for the aviation industry.

Whereas, domestic airlines operated more than 2,800 flights before the pandemic. As of February, they operated 2,058 flights, and to reach 80% of the pre-Covid level, the number has to go over 2,200.

On February 14, the Health Ministry issued revised guidelines for international arrivals. It removed the mandatory seven-day home quarantine and the requirement to undergo an RT-PCR test on the eighth day.

Passengers have the option to either upload a negative RT-PCR report, taken 72 hours before travel or upload certificates of the full Covid vaccination schedule. The categorization of ‘at risk’ countries has also been removed.