India mulls return of regular international flights next month

Muscat: India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation is in talks with the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for resuming regular international flights, government officials told a local business network CNBC-18

The government is considering resuming these flights by March-April, said the network.

The current ban on scheduled international commercial flights, which came into effect in March 2020, is valid till February 28, 2022.

Last month, the country had extended the ban on international commercial flights till February 28 amid the increase in cases of COVID-19 during the third wave driven by the Omicron variant.

According to the government officials mentioned above, the Centre is considering resuming regular international flights in the light of relaxations in rules for international passengers.

the Indian government had scrapped the mandatory pre-travel RT-PCR test, valid for 72-hours before departure, for passengers arriving from over 80 countries, including the Sultanate of Oman.