In the recent turn of events, India has finally decided to continue its international flight operations again. As per Mr. Hardeep Puri, the Union Aviation Minister, the country is presently talking to the UK and Germany for resuming air travel. Currently, even Germany has requested to continue air travel back and from India. The talks on this front are going with Lufthansa airlines for operating the flights. So far, the country has already negotiated with France and the US. The term that is being used for these negotiations is called Air Bubbles.
What is Air Bubble?
Air Bubble is the term that is used when two countries operate a travel corridor under a regulated environment. Because of the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, Governments across the world had limited and restricted commercial flights. The passenger flights came to a complete stop during the initial months of the pandemic.
Passenger flights resume back.
Because of the restrictions and lock-down, many foreign nationals were stuck in the countries where they were visiting. However, now, to get things back to normal, some countries have started resuming passenger travel.
The respective countries are also keeping stringent guidelines to ensure that the passengers are healthy and safe to travel. International flights will only operate to those countries where there are no restrictions on air travel.
Restricted flights to operate to and from the country
The respective countries have even decided to limit or restrict the number of passengers and flights traveling back and forth in India. Until July 31, United Airlines will operate 18 flights between the US and India. Similarly, France will have 28 flights operational from Bangalore, Mumbai, and Delhi to Paris.
Preconditions of resuming passenger travel to a country
For flights to continue International travel, the Governments across the world have come up with three main prerequisites. They are as follows
1. There should be a demand to travel back and forth to a particular country
2. The country should have permission to take and bring passengers
3. The airline carrier should be willing to start operations
In India, the international and domestic air travel was suspended since March 25. It was because of the national lock-down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On May 25, the operations for domestic air travel resumed with limited flights within the country.
Accusations sore as India operated Vande Bharat Mission
Before that, the Indian Aviation and Air India were working together under the Vande Bharat Mission. This mission was an initiative that was taken to bring back the Indians that were stuck in various countries during the pandemic.
However, many problems were created, as many countries felt that the practice was unfair since there were foreign nationals stuck in India. During that time, India was not allowing international flight operations. Although under the mission, the country did send back some of the foreign citizens back home. This way, they were able to get many Indian stuck who were stuck in various parts of the Globe back home.
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