India: International flights to resume; air corridors with the US, UAE, Germany and France in order

In what has come as a big relief, India is all set to resume international flight operations to and from the country. Airlines from the US, Germany, France and the UAE would soon be resuming scheduled international flights into the country. The announcement was preceded by the confirmation of air bubbles between India and the three nations.

The same was announced by Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri as he shared the same on social media.

In an initiative to further expand our international civil aviation operations, air bubble arrangements with US, UAE, France & Germany are being put in place while similar arrangements are also being worked out with several other countries.

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) July 16, 2020

Mr Puri also addressed the media on Thursday, confirming the creation of air bubbles between India, the US, Germany and France. He stated that, "Until international civil aviation can reclaim its pre-Covid situation in terms of numbers, the answer lies through these bilateral air bubbles, which will carry as many people as possible but under defined conditions."

He also confirmed that Air France will operate 28 fights between July 18 and August 1 on the Delhi-Mumbai-Bengaluru sector. He also stated that these flights will not be regular commercial flights and all the tickets would strictly be one-way.
It has to be noted that these flights would be open only to Indian nationals or people with Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) status. Only select foreigners would be allowed on these flights for now.