India extends restrictions on flights from UK till February 14
On December 21, India joined a growing list of countries to seal off access to people who have been to the UK, suspending all flights to and from the country between December 23 and December 31 in order to stop the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday extended the restrictions of limited flight operations between India and the UK imposed in a bid to contain the spread of a new strain of coronavirus.
“The competent authority has further extended the restrictions of flights between India and UK up to February 14, 2021. The other terms and conditions of the said letter shall remain unchanged,” DGCA wrote in an order to airlines operating between the two countries.
On December 21, India joined a growing list of countries to seal off access to people who have been to the UK, suspending all flights to and from the country between December 23 and December 31 in order to stop the spread of a new strain of the coronavirus Sars-Cov-2 feared to spread more rapidly.
On December 30, India extended the suspension of flights from UK till January 7. The government earlier this month announced it will allow flights to operate between United Kingdom and India from January 7 but with restrictions that include limiting flight operations to 15 weekly flights each per country till January 23.
The Centre has put a cap of 30 weekly flights between the two countries with 15 flights each allowed for carriers between the two countries.
Before the restrictions were imposed, nearly 70 flights per week were operating between the two countries, according to DGCA with 10 flights operating per day. Airlines including Air India, British Airways, Vistara and Virgin Atlantic were operating on these routes.
India has been operating international flights through bilateral transport bubbles with 24 countries including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates (UAE), United Kingdom (UK), United States of America (USA), since calling off scheduled overseas flight operations when it announced the nationwide lockdown in March.
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