The government has allowed regular international flight operations from December 15 to all countries except for 14 countries where the COVID-19 pandemic is still not under control, the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Friday.

In an order, the Civil Aviation Ministry stated: “The matter of resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services to and from India has been examined in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and it has been decided that scheduled commercial international passenger services to and from India may be resumed from December 15, 2021.” 

Flights to and from 14 countries that are witnessing a resurgence in Covid cases will continue as per current bubble agreement. The 14 countries are: France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, the United Kingdom, Singapore, China, Mauritius, South Africa, Brazil, and New Zealand. The Centre decided against resuming flights to these nations as the COVID-19 pandemic has not been completely contained in these countries.

Scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since March 23 last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, special international passenger flights have been operating since July last year under air bubble arrangements formed with approximately 28 countries.

According to sources, the decision to restart all commercial international flights was taken as a large portion of India’s population has been fully vaccinated.

A new Covid variant detected so far in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana has caused renewed concern. The Centre has asked states to do “rigorous screening and testing” of passengers coming from these places or after transiting through them. Some countries have already stopped flights to South Africa.

Worth mentioning here is that earlier this week, the government has said scheduled international flights would resume by the year-end.