All the commercial international flights to and from India will continue to remain suspended till July 15, the government confirmed on Friday. A circular released by the Director General of Civil Aviation, said that “scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India shall remain suspended till 23:59 hours IST of 15th July,2020.” The flight operations in India were suspended as the country went into a lockdown in March. 

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The circular confirmed that the restriction will not apply to international cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the aviation regulator. It added that some international scheduled flights on “selected routes” may be allowed by the competent authorities on a case to case basis.

The regular international commercial flight operation was suspended on March 22 by the Indian government immediately before the imposition of the first phase of complete lockdown to fight the spread of coronavirus disease.

WATCH Zee Business TV LIVE Streaming Online

The civil aviation ministry in the past had discussed the possibility of resuming international flight operations by saying that it depends on other countries being open to receiving flights. The domestic flights have already resumed and government plans to restore them to their full capacity by the year end.

Explaining the problem, the government had said that many countries had put conditions on entry of people in their jurisdictions including restrictions on entry of foreign nationals and this had left India with little option but to keep the flights suspended.

The total number of coronavirus cases in India jumped to 4,90,401 after 17,296 new cases were reported in 24 hours. This is the highest number of new cases reported in 24 hours. According to health ministry's numbers released today morning, the number of active cases stands at 1,89,463 while 2,85,636 people have recovered and one patient has migrated. A record total of 13,940 COVID-19 patients were declared cured in a single day. The recovery rate has improved to 58.24%.

Covid-related deaths rose to 15,301 after 407 fatalities were reported in 24 hours.