A day after Hardeep Singh Puri said that flights between India and the United Kingdom will resume from January 8, on Saturday the civil aviation minister offered further clarification, saying that flights from India to the United Kingdom will be restarted on January 6, while operations from the UK to India will resume on January 8.
Thirty flights will operate each week, including 15 from each of the Indian and British airlines, Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, adding that the schedule is valid until January 23.
However, flight operations will be restricted and will only be operated to and from the national capital, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
The central government last week extended the suspension of flights to and from the United Kingdom from December 31 to January 7 to reduce the spread of a new Covid-19 strain found in the United Kingdom, considered 70% more transmissible.
The development came about as people arriving from Britain were infected with the new, highly infectious strain of Covid-19.
The total number of cases of coronavirus infection of the new strain in the country is now 29, the Union Ministry of Health said on Friday.
After the country resumed regular flights to the UK under its air bubble deal, 70 flights a week have been operated. The number has been reduced to 30 and will be reviewed only after January 23.
India has bilateral air bubble pacts with 23 countries. These include Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, and the United Arab Emirates. United. .
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