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.”
Meanwhile, Air India on Sunday said
Indian citizens
and Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders can travel from USA and Canada to India on VBM flights on and after Thursday (June 11).
“Indian citizens and OCI card holders who wish to travel on evacuation flights operated under Vande Bharat Mission to India from USA and Canada may book tickets through Air India Website only for flights departing from USA and Canada on / after June 11, 2020. .. applicants should be registered with the local embassy/ high commission. Tickets on the Air India website will be available effective from 8 pm (IST) on June 8 which is equivalent to New York and Toronto (EDT 10.30 am of June 8), Chicago (CDT 9.30 am) and San Francisco (PDT 7.30 am),” AI Tweeted Sunday.
Air India is operating 75 additional flights to North American destinations like New York, Newark, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, Vancouver and Toronto this month and foreign nationals can fly out on them. AI officials say more flights are being added.
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