Coronavirus: Visas suspended, foreign airlines to cancel, cut flights to IndiaCoronavirus: Visas suspended, foreign airlines to cancel, cut flights to India
NEW DELHI: Foreign airlines are likely to significantly reduce flights to India, through a mix of cancellations and frequency reductions on different routes, with India suspending most existing visas till April 15, 2020.
Visa suspension, which comes into effect from 5.30pm on Friday (March 13) at ports of departure abroad, exempts diplomatic, official, UN/international organisations, employment and project-visa holders. Visa-free facility granted to overseas citizens of India (OCI) card-holders is kept in abeyance till April 15, 2020.
Demand for travel out of India will also reduce as the health ministry, after a group of ministers' meeting on Wednesday to contain the spread of coronavirus, asked Indians to avoid non-essential travel abroad. The fear of being quarantined will impact as much as visa suspension. " We are studying the impact of this order but cancelling some flights and reducing frequency of a few seems the most likely course of action," said an official of a major foreign airline.
India gets just over a crore foreign tourists in a year, with 2018 seeing 1.05 crore arrivals. The total number of international passengers to and from India in 2018, according to DGCA data, was 6.3 crore (2019 figures not in yet).
12/03/20 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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NEW DELHI: Foreign airlines are likely to significantly reduce flights to India, through a mix of cancellations and frequency reductions on different routes, with India suspending most existing visas till April 15, 2020.
Visa suspension, which comes into effect from 5.30pm on Friday (March 13) at ports of departure abroad, exempts diplomatic, official, UN/international organisations, employment and project-visa holders. Visa-free facility granted to overseas citizens of India (OCI) card-holders is kept in abeyance till April 15, 2020.
Demand for travel out of India will also reduce as the health ministry, after a group of ministers' meeting on Wednesday to contain the spread of coronavirus, asked Indians to avoid non-essential travel abroad. The fear of being quarantined will impact as much as visa suspension. " We are studying the impact of this order but cancelling some flights and reducing frequency of a few seems the most likely course of action," said an official of a major foreign airline.
India gets just over a crore foreign tourists in a year, with 2018 seeing 1.05 crore arrivals. The total number of international passengers to and from India in 2018, according to DGCA data, was 6.3 crore (2019 figures not in yet).
12/03/20 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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