India on Wednesday said it signed air bubble agreements with two more countries taking the total number of nations, with which these temporary arrangements are formed, to 15. Indians will soon be able to take special international passenger flights to and from Kenya and Bhutan to destinations in India along with 13 other nations with which such pacts are already in place.
Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE, the UK and the USA are the other countries with whom India has already formed bilateral air bubble agreements until September 17.
India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation describes air bubbles as “Transport Bubbles” or “Air Travel Arrangements” which are temporary arrangements between two countries aimed at restarting commercial passenger services when regular international flights are suspended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. They are reciprocal in nature, meaning airlines from both countries enjoy similar benefits”.
https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?creatorScreenName=TIMESNOW&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1311264368026296327&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesnownews.com%2Fbusiness-economy%2Findia-revival-mission%2Farticle%2Findia-has-air-bubble-agreements-with-kenya-bhutan-international-flights-now-to-15-countries%2F660479&siteScreenName=TIMESNOW&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px India’s Minister of Civil Aviation (I/C) Hardeep Singh Puri announced the new bilateral agreements signed with Kenya and Bhutan alerting stranded Indians in the regions to take note.
“In order to further boost bilateral international air connectivity, Air Bubble arrangements are now in place with Kenya & Bhutan. Indian carriers will be able to operate to these countries. Carriers of these countries will be able to fly to India,” Civil Aviation Minister Puri announced on his Twitter account.
The development comes at a day after Lufthansa cancelled all its flights to and from India between September 30 and October 20 following the breakdown of talks between India and Germany over the number of flights operated by the airlines from each country.
“India formalised an air bubble with Germany in July 2020. An air bubble arrangement allows nationals of both countries to travel in either direction. However, there are restrictions in place for Indian nationals desiring to travel to Germany which was putting Indian carriers at a significant disadvantage resulting in inequitable distribution of traffic in favour of Lufthansa. As against Indian carriers operating 3-4 flights a week, Lufthansa operated 20 flights a week. In spite of this disparity, we offered to clear 7 flights a week for Lufthansa which was not accepted by them. Negotiations continue,” said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), India’s aviation regulator.
Normal international flights remain suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, special international flights have been operating under the government’s Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) repatriation scheme to bring stranded Indians back.
