Civil Aviation Minister says that reopening of international flights completely depends on the Omicron situation

With the Omicron variant going around everywhere, there is further doubt on international travel. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia made it abundantly clear at an event recently that international travel completely depends on the spread of this new variant.
The minister said at the event, “Keeping in mind the health, we cannot dissociate ourselves from COVID. We are working closely with the health ministry. When we tide over Omicron, we can look at going back to normalcy even vis-a-vis international travel but I cannot give you the date today."

He further said that the matter is not incumbent on him, as there are a host of other factors such as consulting other ministries, and watching the situation as it unfolds in the next couple of weeks. As of now, India has reported some 40 Omicron cases.
Last month the Directorate General of Civil Aviation had decided to restart commercial international flights to and from India. The proposed date for this was December 15. However, the decision was put on hold as the Omicron virus surged around the world. International flights now remain suspended until January 31.

As far as domestic flights are concerned, before COVID 19, the minister said that the highest capacity was close to 4.2 lakh passengers daily, and now it is around 3.7 to 3.95 lakh per day.

Scindia said, "Today, we are running 3.7 to 3.9 lakh passengers per day and on a seat load factor basis of 75-81 per cent, which is a very healthy seat load factor. Keeping that in mind, I was looking at opening up international travel but as you all are aware, just on the anvil of that the world got hit by Omicron."