(VIN): India’s civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said the future of international air travel in the country is depending on the availability of a vaccine against Covid-19.
Responding to a question on whether travel bubble arrangements will continue till April next year, the minister said: “It is difficult to say as there is no country which has completely opened its borders for all. It depends on the availability of a vaccine as countries will feel more confident once a vaccine is there.”
Air bubbles or travel bubbles are agreements between countries to allow their respective airlines to carry passengers maintaining specific safeguards against the coronavirus.
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International passenger flights have remained suspended in India since March 23, but domestic passenger flights resumed after two months, on May 25. However, special international passenger flights, such as repatriation flights, are operating under the Vande Bharat mission, while air bubble arrangements are also being formed with various countries.
The minister said that the suspension of international passenger flight services in India was likely to continue till March-April next year.
“There are basically three issues to consider before resuming regular international flights. One, resuming domestic connectivity connecting bigger cities to smaller town, which we have already done. Second, the nature of the virus on which I can’t comment and the third is international restrictions. Every country wants their people to return, but for others there are plenty of restrictions,” Puri said.
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Domestic airlines will soon be allowed to increase their passenger-carrying capacity to 75 per cent, from 65 per cent at present.
“There is no deadline. But this can happen soon as the domestic numbers are going up. Before this, I said that the pre-covid domestic number will be achieved between Diwali and New Year. Now I am confident that by the first quarter next year, we will be able to surpass the pre-covid number,” Puri said.
Puri also said that India had formalised air bubble deals with 16 countries — USA, Canada, France, Germany, UK, Maldives, UAE, Qatar, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Japan, Nigeria, Kenya, Iraq, Bhutan, and Oman. Discussions are on to strike similar deals with Italy, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and others.
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Civil aviation secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola said: “This marks the beginning of the second phase of domestic travel as we are now gearing up to face the challenge of welcoming more people in the airports as the festive season is almost upon us. We had a meeting with the airlines recently in this regard.”
Kharola said aviation ministry officials had held talks with German airline Lufthansa, which earlier cancelled all flights to India till 20 October due to what it called was an “unexpected rejection” of its planned flight schedule for October by Indian authorities.
“Talks (with Lufthansa) were constructive and we are sure we will meet them soon and an air bubble arrangement (which is already in place) will be finalized with Germany,” the senior official said.
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