On Friday (July 3), The Indian aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has decided to extend the ban on operations of all scheduled international flights in the country till July 31.

The DGCA further said that however special international flights may be allowed on some selected routes by the competent authority on a case to case basis.

Earlier on June 26, the DGCA had passed a circular that directed to all airlines that scheduled international passenger flights will remain suspended till July 15, 2020 in the country but yesterday it has modified its order and decided to extend the deadline till end of the month.

In regards to resumption of international flight services, Aviation minister Mr. Hardeep Puri had earlier said, “The government will start thinking on the resumption of international passenger flights in mid-July, when it expects the domestic air traffic to reach 50-55 per cent of the levels before the coronavirus and resumption of international flights will also depend on demand and other countries being open to receiving flights amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Mr. Arvind Singh, chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI) had also informed on Thursday (July 2) that India is talking with the US, Canada and some countries in the European & Gulf regions to establish “individual bilateral bubbles” which will permit airlines of each country in the pact to operate international flights between them.

India had suspended its all scheduled international passenger flight operations since March 23 in a bid to curb the spread of new cases and transmission of COVID-19 in the country but cases of infection are still rising rapidly.

In regards to COVID-19 transmission, India is at fourth position in the list of all the countries in the world affected by COVID-19 and has reported 6,51,067 confirmed cases which are under treatment & 18,695 patients have lost their lives. However, 3,95,131 patients tested positive to COVID-19 have recovered, as of Saturday (July 4).