TLI Staff
New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry has suggested “strictly regulated” number of India-UK flights after the temporary suspension of commercial passenger flights ends on January 7, 2021.
The decision has been taken following the inputs received by the Joint Working Group (JMG) headed by the Director General of Health services (DGHS) and National Task Force under the chairmanship of DG, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
The Health Ministry while recommending suspension of flights for another week said that the aviation authorities could consider limited number of flights from UK.
“The mechanism of resuming these limited flights has to be decided in consultation with Health Ministry,” an official said.
The move has come a day after 6 cases of a highly-infectious mutant strain of coronavirus that first surfaced in the UK was detected in the country. The new strain is believed to be 70% more infectious than the current form of the virus spreading across the world.
As of now, 20 people who returned from UK have tested positive for the new Covid-19 variant.
As a precautionary measure, the government had on December 22 announced to suspend flights from UK till December 31. In view of the prevailing situation in the UK, the government has extended the ban for another week.
The airline sector has been hit hard by the Coronavirus pandemic. While the government has allowed domestic airlines to operate regular flights to the extent of 80% of their total capacity, scheduled commercial flights on international routes are yet to start.
India has enetered into an air bubble agreement with various countries to operate limited number of international flights.
“Indeed, 2020 will go down the annals of aviation history as the watershed year for all the wrong reasons. Airlines bled with losses mounting crores per day. Allied industries such as airports, hospitality and travel trade have been hit hard as well. Thousands of travel agents have shut shop and many have been rendered jobless,” said Ankur Bhatia, Executive Director, Bird Group.
“While India continues to operate Vande Bharat flights, scheduled international flights are still not operating and the situation continues to look grim for the sector,” he added.