PremiumThe country's largest airline IndiGo on Sunday announced the resumption of its international flights from several destinations in India. The budget carrier said in a statement that the flights will operate from cities like Delhi, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Amritsar, Kozhikode, Kochi, Chandigarh, Tiruchirappalli, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mangaluru.
Meanwhile, the international destinations include Dammam, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Jeddah, Riyadh, Doha, Bangkok, Phuket, Singapore, Colombo, Dubai, Kathmandu, Maldives, and Dhaka. Scheduled operations on more than 150 routes will be restarted in a phased manner through the month of April 2022, the statement read further.
IndiGo in its statement noted, "scheduled operations from to destinations in Thailand have already commenced from Sunday, (March 27, 2022). The resumption of these flights will bolster India's connectivity with the globe and aid in the acceleration of economic and tourist activities that had been impacted by the pandemic."
William Boulter, Chief Commercial Officer, IndiGo stated, "We are pleased to resume our scheduled international operations. Following the easing of restrictions, we are witnessing a huge demand for international travel. We hope that this enhanced connectivity with various destinations across the continent will provide a boost to the travel and tourism sector while proving to be a catalyst for economic revival."
This comes at a time when after a coronavirus pandemic-induced hiatus of over two years, regular international flights are set to resume from Sunday with airports and airlines getting ready for normal overseas operations.
Battered by the pandemic, the airline industry is slowly coming back to normalcy and the resumption of normal overseas flights is expected to provide a fillip to the sector.
The Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in the national capital, which is also the country's largest airport, expects international flight departures to witness a significant jump in the first week of April after the resumption of regular international operations.
While Indian carriers are prepared for normal international services, various foreign airlines, including Emirates, Virgin Atlantic and LOT Polish have also announced plans about their services to and from India.
As many as 60 airlines from 40 countries have been permitted to operate 1,783 frequencies to/from India during the summer schedule, according to DGCA. The summer schedule will be effective from March 27 till October 29.
A total of 1,466 international departures per week have been approved for six Indian carriers for the summer schedule. They will operate to 43 destinations in 27 countries, as per the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Scheduled international passenger flights have remained suspended since March 23, 2020 in the wake of the pandemic and they will now restart from Sunday. Overseas flights are being operated now under bilateral air bubble arrangements with various countries.
(With inputs from agencies)
