Day after Hardeep Singh Puri said that the flights between India and the UK will resume from 8 January, the civil aviation minister on Saturday offered more clarification and stated that flights from India to the UK will restart on 6 January, while operations from the UKto India will resume on 8 January.Thirty flights will operate every week, including 15 each by the Indian and UK carriers, minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, adding that the schedule is valid till 23 January.
However, flight operations will be restricted and will only be operated to and from the national capital, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad.
Resumption of flights between India & UK:
India to UK from 6 Jan 2021. UK to India from 8 Jan 2021. 30 flights will operate every week. 15 each by Indian & UK carriers.
This schedule is valid till 23 Jan 2021. Further frequency will be determined after review.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) January 2, 2021
The Central Government had last week extended the suspension of flights to and from the UK from 31 December till 7 January to curtail the spread of a new Covid-19 strain found in the UK, considered to 70% more transmissible.
The development came in the wake of people arriving from Britain being found to infected with the new and highly infectious strain of Covid-19.
The total number of the new strain of coronavirus infection cases in the country now stands at 29, the Union Health Ministry has said on Friday.
After the country resumed regular flights to the United Kingdom under its air bubble agreement, 70 flights per week have been operated. The number has been brought down to 30 and will be revised only after 23 January.
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, the UAE, and the US.
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