After a coronavirus pandemic-induced hiatus of over two years, regular international flights are set to resume from Sunday with airports and airlines getting ready for normal overseas operations.
While Indian carriers are all perked up, various foreign airlines, including Emirates, Virgin Atlantic and LOT Polish, have also announced services to and from India.
Battered by the pandemic, the airline industry is returning to normalcy and the resumption is expected to provide a fillip to the hospitality sector and tourism.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital, which is also the country's largest airport, expects international flight departures to witness a significant jump in the first week of April.
As many as 60 airlines from 40 countries have been permitted to operate 1,783 frequencies to and from India during the summer schedule, according to DGCA.
The summer schedule will be effective from March 27 till October 29.
A total of 1,466 international departures per week have been approved for six Indian carriers for the summer schedule. They will operate to 43 destinations in 27 countries, as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.
Scheduled international passenger flights were suspended since March 23, 2020, in the wake of the pandemic. Overseas flights were being operated under bilateral air bubble arrangements with various countries. The government has also revised the COVID guidelines for international flight operations, including the removal of the requirement to keep three seats vacant on overseas flights for medical emergencies. Besides, the requirement for the crew to have a complete PPE kit has been done away with.
In a statement on Saturday, IndiGo Chief Commercial Officer Willy Boulter said the airline is keen on returning operations to pre-COVID levels but that will also depend on factors like arrival guidelines of various countries. IndiGo is the country's largest airline. The number of international Air Traffic Movements (ATMs) is likely to increase from 165 per day to 300 per day in summer 2022.
On Friday, Gulf carrier Emirates said it would re-introduce pre-pandemic service frequency across its destinations in the country from April 1. Prior to late March 2020, when the scheduled international services were stopped by India, Emirates was operating 170 weekly flights to nine destinations, including Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata.
All these flights are being restored now, starting from April 1, as per the airline. These 170 weekly flights include 35 services to Mumbai, 28 to Delhi, 24 to Bengaluru, 21 each to Chennai and Hyderabad, 14 to Kochi, 11 to Kolkata, nine to Ahmedabad and seven to Thiruvananthapuram. SriLankan Airlines, on Friday, said it would start operating up to 88-weekly flights to India to match the pre-COVID flight schedule.
British carrier Virgin Atlantic would start a second daily service between Delhi and London starting from June 1. Coupled with its service from Mumbai, Virgin Atlantic will offer three daily flights from India.
