Discontinuation of Air Suvidha form will bring respite to passengers, encourage more travel, say Chennai travel agents

The Air Suvidha form was introduced and made mandatory during the pandemic for passengers entering or leaving the country

The discontinuation of the Air Suvidha form, which was introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic for people entering India, has brought relief to passengers coming into the country and those retuning home after vacationing abroad.

Travel agents in Chennai said, this was a much-needed advantage to the sector, as i would persuade more people to take up international travel as they do not have to produce a negative RT-PCR certificate [for COVID-19] now. S. Jeyasekaran, founder of Travel N More said, while this was only a small procedure, there were passengers who struggled with it and some were unaware of it too. “Earlier, a lot of people felt the pinch of paying for the RT-PCR test as it was very expensive in some countries. The circular also states travellers should be ‘preferably’ vaccinated. Since most restrictions are gone, we could soon reach the pre-pandemic level of international travel.”

M. K. Regil of Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI), Chennai Chapter, said, most travellers ended up doing this procedure at the last minute at the check-in counters of international airports. “From updating the flight details to their vaccination dates, they had to enter in some key information. Since many were doing it at the last minute, the check-in process itself was getting longer sometimes. It is a relief for passengers that the government has done away with it,” he said.

Alexander M J, a frequent air traveller said, he is relieved that this procedure has been discontinued now. “Sometimes, if we are already running late for a flight it causes a lot of tension. We will have to hurriedly look up the details and submit the form at the check-in counter. Now that the COVID-19 cases have gone down significantly, I’m glad they have removed this process,” he said.

The form had passengers declare their health status before they took a flight to India, and was discontinued on November 22, as per a circular by the Ministry of Civil Aviation. However, the circular states: “All travellers should preferably be fully vaccinated as per the approved primary schedule of vaccination against COVID-19 in their country:.

EOM