India poised to reopen for international flights

India is to reopen for scheduled commercial passenger flights from March 27, 2022, after more than two years of international isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Indian government in a statement on March 8 announced the lifting of the commercial flight ban was in recognition of increased vaccination coverage across the globe. Scheduled commercial international passenger services to/from India would recommence from 0000L (1830Z) on March 26.

Existing air bubble arrangements were extended to this extent only. India has been allowing limited flights to certain countries under air bubble agreements including to Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Mauritius, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, USA, and Uzbekistan.

India’s borders had been closed for regular commercial passenger flights since March 23, 2020. On February 28, 2022, the government had extended the ban on scheduled international passenger flights until further notice after rescinding a previous lifting of the ban on December 15, 2021, due to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Air India made no immediate announcement. The national carrier has been operating flights to Singapore Changi for fully-vaccinated travellers under a so-called Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) or air bubble arrangement. Air India Express on March 27 will resume flights to Singapore from Chennai and Tiruchirapally, and from March 29 from Madurai, according to its social media posts.

Go First, IndiGo Airlines, SpiceJet, and Vistara also made no immediate announcements.

Most of the carriers recently operated special rescue flights, dubbed “Operation Ganga”, to Romania and Hungary to repatriate Indian nationals caught in the war on Ukraine, according to their social media posts.