India's December 15 International Flight Restart Under Review

After a long hiatus of more than 20 months, the government had on November 26 announced the resumption of scheduled international commercial flights from December 15.

India might hit the brakes on resuming commercial international flights following an outbreak of the new COVID-19 variant of concern 'Omicron' in some countries. The decision, however, will have no impact on air bubbles that are operating as of now, officials have said.

The central government on Sunday reviewed the strategy following reports that the new variant is more lethal and spreads easily than other Covid variants. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, a closer watch is being kept on the emerging pandemic situation within the country.

In a high-level meeting chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, the decision to resume the scheduled commercial international flights was reviewed keeping the evolving global scenario in mind.

The meeting was held with various experts including V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Prime Minister, senior officers from Health, Civil Aviation and other Ministries.