Owing to the sudden spike in the cases of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has decided to extend the ban on all scheduled international commercial passenger flights till the end of December 2020.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a circular on November 26 which stated that all international commercial passenger flights flying to and from India will remain suspended till December 31.
According to the DGCA, these restrictions, however, won't apply to cargo operations.
Notably, select international flights on limited routes may be allowed by competent authorities on case to case basis, DGCA added.
Earlier, the DGCA had suspended scheduled international passenger flights till November 30.
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Ever since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in India, the government decided to suspend all the scheduled international passenger services since March 23. However, special flights have been operating since May. Later, the government decided to move more flights under the bilateral 'air bubble' agreement with selected countries in July.
So far, India has formed air bubble pacts with around 20 countries, including the US and the UK. This pact allows the two counties to operate special international flights by their airlines between their territories.
The scheduled domestic passenger flights resumed in India on May 25 after a gap of two months amid the pandemic situation.