The ban on scheduled international commercial flights has been extended till April 30, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) announced on March 23.
The international passenger flights, operating under air travel bubble arrangements, will continue, the aviation regulator said.
The international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA would also remain exempted from the restriction, it added.
International travel was banned in March last year, coinciding with a similar restriction on domestic operations, and the imposition of a nationwide lockdown to curb COVID-19 transmission. While domestic flights had resumed in May 2020, international travel remained suspended.
India initially began Vande Bharat Mission - a repatriation exercise - that allowed stranded Indian nationals to return back home. Later, the air travel bubbles were introduced to facilitate the to and fro movement of flights on select-routes.
The 27 countries with which India currently has an air bubble agreement are - the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Kenya, Japan, Bahrain, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, Seychelles, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
The restrictions on international air travel, globally, has severely hit the aviation sector. The year 2020 was recorded as the "worst year ever" in the history of global aviation, with the overall demand (revenue passenger kilometres or RPKs) plunging by 65.9 percent, said a report released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in February.
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