Govt to lift all curbs on international flights soon

New Delhi: An inter-ministerial committee of officials from the Ministries of Home Affairs, Health and Family Welfare, Civil Aviation and the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will meet this week to take a call on lifting the ban on regular international flights, official sources said. The ban is in force till February 28.

The meeting will take into account the Covid-19 situation in India and determine whether scheduled international commercial flights can be restarted from March 1, the sources said.

While officials from the DGCA and the civil aviation ministry have proposed to lift the ban, the final nod is likely to come from the ministry of health and family welfare, which is closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation.

"The decision is yet to be taken by health ministry officials as some states with a high inflow of international traffic are still showing a rise in COVID-19 cases," a government official said.

The Civil Aviation Ministry and DGCA officials are also scheduled to meet senior officials from the domestic and international airlines this week after the inter-ministerial meeting to discuss measures to ensure smooth transition of restarting international flights and to discuss increasing frequency of flights under air bubble agreements, officials said.