The Unlock 4.0 guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs still doesn’t permit the regular resumption of international air travel, however, India has made select arrangements with certain countries for international flights.
Goa may soon witness international flights – primarily from the UK and Gulf region – as India is formalizing ‘travel bubble’ arrangements with countries.
A ‘travel bubble’ is a special transport corridor established with an exclusive partnership by two countries. This enables the resumption of commercial air passenger services between the two countries, as the regular international flights are not operational in view of the coronavirus pandemic situation across the globe. Airlines from both countries enjoy similar benefits under this travel system.
India initially began having air travel bubbles with the United States, and then eventually had it with countries such as Germany, France, Canada, UAE, and Qatar.
According to reports, the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, as well as the Airport Authority of India (AAI) have received multiple proposals from airlines to operate passenger flights to Dabolim airport in Goa as part of this air bubble system by the government.
Several requests have been received to operate flights from Sharjah, Doha, and Kuwait through this bubble system, and the same will receive their slots from September 6 onwards.
Flights from the UK are also scheduled to arrive in the state as part of this system. Several Goans, stuck in the middle-east and UK due to the pandemic will find this as a much-needed respite to arrive back in the state.
Under this travel bubble arrangement, a special Air India flight brought back 63 Indians who were stranded in London. The same flight left for London via Delhi with 33 passengers under the air bubble arrangement.
The 48th Relief flight took off early morning today from Goa International Airport to London under airbubble travel arrangements. 33nos pax availed this service.All required protocols were smoothly ensured by TEAM GOA @AAI_Official @MoCA_GoI @MEAIndia @DGCAIndia @aairedwr @goacm pic.twitter.com/KsMmRTh7xw
— Goa Airport (@aaigoaairport) August 31, 2020
The Goa airport has been considered to be the busiest as several arrivals and departures – a record jump – have been witnessed over the last two months, despite surging cases of COVID-19 in the state.
The airport had also handled several repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat mission to bring back stranded Indians across the globe. Also, other flights, mostly from Russia, were accommodated at the airport as part of taking back foreign tourists and nationals stuck in the state due to the pandemic.
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