Guwahati News Desk: Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government at the Centre extends the suspension of international scheduled commercial passenger flights to and from India till September 30.
The information was released by the Centre on Sunday.
Whereas, the latest circular issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), stated that the international cargo flights and those approved by the regulator will continue to operate.
The DGCA also said that scheduled international flights might be allowed on selected routes on a case-to-case basis.
Moreover, the commercial international flights have remained suspended since March 23, 2020, in order to check the spread of the Covid-19 infection. In addition, special international flights were also operating under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ since May 2020, for bringing home thousands of Indian nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown.
However, the restrictions were later eased for certain countries with which India has had an air bubble arrangement during the past year. The air bubble pact between the two countries allows the operation of special international flights by the national carrier between their territories.
Regarding the restrictions on international commercial flights, they were supposed to end on July 31, 2021. However, the ban was extended as a threat of the emergence of a third wave of Covid.
Furthermore, the news of the extension comes on a day when India reported 45,083 new cases and 460 deaths in the last 24 hours. The active cases have also increased to over 3.6 lakh.
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