Hopeful of starting good percentage of international ops before Aug-Sept: Hardeep Puri

“I am fully hopeful that before August or September, we will try to start a good percentage of international civil aviation operations, if not complete international operations,” Puri said during a Facebook Live session. “I can’t put a date on it (restarting international flights). But if somebody says can it be done by August or September, my response is why not earlier depending on what is the situation,” he said.

The government had banned all international flights from March 23.

A senior government official, on condition of anonymity, said that the Civil Aviation Ministry has been monitoring the situation in countries like the US, the UK, Italy, the UAE, Singapore, Thailand, etc to assess whether it will be safe to resume commercial operations to these destinations.

A number of European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, etc are likely to begin relaxation of travel restrictions next month, but some nations like Canada are still adhering to strict arrival protocols. Singapore, which banned short-term visit and transit passengers, is also expected to “gradually” lift the restrictions on transiting passengers from next month.

“With number of cases spiking in India, we are also considering the possibility that some of these countries may not allow regular flights from India. But from our end, we will exercise the highest caution,” the official said, adding that the Ministry was also taking lessons from the Vande Bharat repatriation mission.

The official said that a number of factors needed to be taken into account, including whether it will be safe for airline crew to be in layover at a hotel in an overseas destination and whether it will be safe to bring passengers in large numbers from those locations to India.

In the third phase of the Vande Bharat mission, which will commence from June 13, the government has also roped in private airlines in addition to Air India to fly Indian citizens wanting to come back to India. In the second phase, which started on May 16, around 32,000 citizens are expected to be flown back on more than 160 flights from 47 countries.