India To Resume Regular International Flights After 2 Years From Today

After nearly two years, India has restarted international flight operations from Sunday.

Due to the influx of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the country, the Central Government had banned flight operations back in March 2020.

The airline industry, which was hit hard by the pandemic, is slowly returning to routine, and the resumption of regular international flights is expected to provide the business with a boost.

After the resumption of regular international operations, the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital, which is also the country’s largest airport, expects a considerable increase in international aircraft departures in the first week of April.

Six Indian airlines and 60 foreign airlines from 40 countries — excluding any from China — will begin operating 3,249 weekly flights to and from India on Sunday under the summer schedule, as regular international flights return after a two-year hiatus.

The summer schedule will be in force from March 27 till October 29.

Six Indian carriers have been allowed for a total of 1,466 overseas departures per week for the summer schedule.

According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, they would fly to 43 locations in 27 countries (DGCA).

New Covid Guidelines for the Airlines

The COVID criteria for international flight operations have also been changed by the government, with the requirement to keep three seats available on international flights for medical situations being removed.
Furthermore, the necessity that the crew have complete PPE gear has been eliminated.
IndiGo Chief Commercial Officer Willy Boulter said in a statement on Saturday that the airline is eager to resume foreign operations at pre-COVID levels, but that this will be contingent on considerations such as individual nations’ arrival criteria.

International Network of Flights

The maximum number of flights an airline can operate is specified in the DGCA-approved schedule.
The actual number of flights is determined by a variety of factors, including demand for travel, airline financial health, and operating costs, which essentially refers to how expensive fuel is and how far an airline can fly.
IndiGo will have the highest frequency on the Gulf and Southeast Asia routes in its international network, with over 300 planes.
IndiGo’s medium-haul strategy will kick off in mid-2024 with the introduction of single-aisle Airbus A321 XLRs that will fly nonstop between Asia and Europe.
Air India has not announced whether it aims to add US flights, despite United suspending its Delhi-San Francisco and Mumbai-Newark flights since US carriers do not fly across Russian territory, whereas AI does, allowing it to use the shortest possible routes on long-haul flights.
After March 2020, Delta has yet to resume operations in India.
As of today, America only has one nonstop, a daily flight from Delhi to JFK.
Vistara, a subsidiary of the Tata Group, has been debating whether or not to lease planes to begin nonstop flights to the United States for months; however, the high cost of fuel is preventing the airline from making a decision.
While it remains to be seen whether AI and Vistara, the only two Indian carriers with wide-body aircraft, aim to grow their share of traffic between India and North America, one-stop majors such as Emirates, Qatar Airways, Lufthansa, and Singapore Airways have returned to the game.