Services of all international flights will resume by March 27, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The minister said that all regular international flights will “operate at 100% capacity by March 27 as the Covid situation in India has improved”. The government had banned international flights for a week starting March 23, 2020. The ban stretched for nearly two years in the midst of a raging pandemic. Special international flights have been operating between India and about 35 countries since July 2020 under the air bubble.
The resumption of the regular flights is expected to boost international tourism and will help soften airfares' debts which have been soaring due to an increase in crude oil prices. While the government had earlier planned to resume international flights on March 15, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, which necessitated relief flights to bring back stranded Indians in Ukraine, delayed the process.
