Scheduled international flights to and from India would be resumed from December 15, the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Friday. 

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

The Civil Aviation Ministry had recently written a letter to aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), asking it to take “further necessary action” for resumption of scheduled international flights. 

“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,” the Civil Aviation Ministry said today. 

“Resumption of commercial international passenger services would imply reversion to bilaterally-agreed capacity entitlements and termination of air-bubble arrangements,” the ministry added. 

The countries that the Health Ministry had identified as not “at risk” of COVID-19 would get “full capacity entitlements according to the bilateral air service agreements”, the ministry noted. 

In a circular on Friday, the Health Ministry put countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel under the “at-risk” category. 

The Aviation Ministry said that if a country had been identified to be “at risk” of COVID-19 and had an air-bubble agreement with India, then “75 per cent of pre-COVID scheduled international flight operations of Indian or foreign carrier, whichever is higher, or a minimum of seven frequencies per week, subject to availability of entitlements under bilateral agreements will be permitted”. 

For a country that had been identified to be “at risk” of COVID-19 and did not have an air-bubble agreement with India, then only “50 per cent of bilateral capacity entitlements or 50 per cent of pre-COVID operations of Indian or foreign carrier, whichever is higher”, would be permitted.