New Delhi: India will take a call on resuming schedule international flights as soon as foreign countries start accepting foreign citizens. Aviation minister H S Puri on Sunday reviewed the situation for resuming schedule flights as there is huge demand for travel to and from India. With Air India being the only airline doing so currently under Vande Bharat Mission (VBM), passengers who wish to fly out of India face an extremely uphill task for booking tickets whenever AI starts taking bookings due to crores of hits on its website. The site slows down and people have to keep trying for several hours before — and if — they get lucky enough to grab a seat to any destination in the US.
“A decision to resume regular international operations will be taken as soon as countries ease restrictions on entry of foreign nationals. Destination countries have to be ready to allow incoming flights,” Puri Tweeted on Sunday.
Puri, in a series of Tweets on Sunday night, said: “Due to increasing demand for resumption of scheduled international flights by people who want to travel abroad due to compelling reasons, I reviewed the state of international flight operations around the world. Globally the situation is far from normal. Most countries have less than 10% international operations because they are allowing entry only to their own citizens and have placed restrictions on foreign nationals. Many are allowing inbound flights from few countries but have also placed restrictions of quarantine/isolation.”
Apart from AI’s VBM flights, about a lakh people have flown out of India and 38,000 to the country on 640 charter flights since schedule services were suspended on March 22. More charter flights will be allowed in coming days to enable people to travel, the minister assured.
“We have let outbound passengers on VBM flights to fly to countries which allow them entry. More than 13,500 people have flown out of India. Air India has sold another 22,000 tickets for flights to US and Canada (on June 5 and 6). Bookings for Europe and other places will open soon. Potentially these many eligible people will return to India as well. We are adding more flights to VBM.”
07/06/20 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
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“A decision to resume regular international operations will be taken as soon as countries ease restrictions on entry of foreign nationals. Destination countries have to be ready to allow incoming flights,” Puri Tweeted on Sunday.
Puri, in a series of Tweets on Sunday night, said: “Due to increasing demand for resumption of scheduled international flights by people who want to travel abroad due to compelling reasons, I reviewed the state of international flight operations around the world. Globally the situation is far from normal. Most countries have less than 10% international operations because they are allowing entry only to their own citizens and have placed restrictions on foreign nationals. Many are allowing inbound flights from few countries but have also placed restrictions of quarantine/isolation.”
Apart from AI’s VBM flights, about a lakh people have flown out of India and 38,000 to the country on 640 charter flights since schedule services were suspended on March 22. More charter flights will be allowed in coming days to enable people to travel, the minister assured.
“We have let outbound passengers on VBM flights to fly to countries which allow them entry. More than 13,500 people have flown out of India. Air India has sold another 22,000 tickets for flights to US and Canada (on June 5 and 6). Bookings for Europe and other places will open soon. Potentially these many eligible people will return to India as well. We are adding more flights to VBM.”
07/06/20 Saurabh Sinha/Times of India
Sir kindly allow Indian Americans on tourist visa and OCI in America to visit India duly lifting the visa restrictions.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Sir kindly allow Indian Americans on tourist visa and OCI in America to visit India duly lifting the visa restrictions.
ReplyDeleteThanks