Omicron: Resumption of international flights hangs in balance, India to take decision in 'due course'

By Ashoke RajNew Delhi [India] December 1 (ANI): As the situation with respect to the new COVID variant continues to evolve, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday said that it will notify its decision in due course on the date of resumption of commercial international passengers airline services to and from India.

The circular by India's aviation watchdog DGCA on the resumption of scheduled international flights comes as India was due to resume flights from December 15, nearly 20 months after these flights were suspended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"Directorate General of Civil Aviation says it will notify its decision in due course on date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passengers airline services to/from India. It also says that situation being watched closely in view of emergence of new COVID variant," DGCA circular read.

In addition, the DGCA mentioned in the circular that all stakeholders are closely monitoring the global development of the new strain of COVID-19.

"In view of the evolving global scenario with the emergence of new Variants of Concern, the situation is being watched closely in consultation with all stakeholders and an appropriate decision indicating the effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger services shall be notified in due course," DGCA circular said.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) had recently announced the resumption of scheduled international flights from December 15, but now it has been postponed.

In a recent interaction with ANI, junior minister of Aviation General (Retd) VK Singh expressed that, "due to tremendous pressure of public to restart schedule international flights.

"We have tremendous pressure from the public to start international scheduled flights. Anybody coming from abroad, are being screenedtested at the airport. Only after checking the results, they are being allowed to go," MoS V K Singh told ANI.

On Saturday, PM Modi had chaired a comprehensive meeting that lasted for almost two hours to review the public health preparedness and vaccination-related situation for COVID-19.

The DGCA had suspended operations of scheduled international commercial passenger services to and from India with effect from March 23, 2020, due to COVID-19. (ANI)