In a letter to DGCA, Ministry of Civil Aviation has confirmed that air travellers holding a valid visa of all kind are allowed to travel to the US, UK, Canada and UAE under the bilateral Air Bubble agreement with these countries, easing the travel for all type of Visa holders including tourist, business, student and transit visas.
However, the Indian government has not allowed all visa type holders to enter India and only certain essential visa holders can enter India using International flights from these countries.
For the inbound flights to India, the focus of the government is to repatriate as many stranded Indians either on Vande Bharat Mission, which is in its fifth stage now or using the flights under the bilateral air bubble agreement.
In a press conference held last month, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that the government is in a very advance stage of negotiations for air bubble or bilateral bubbles with at least three countries – France, US & Germany. The minister, in the press conference, confirmed that the next course of action for the government would be to start international flights based on bilateral agreements with certain countries.
Explaining the rationale behind the air bubble, he said that till the international civil aviation reclaim its pre-COVID numbers and normalize globally, India will rely on bilateral air bubbles for transporting international passengers.
Minister Puri further added that the bilateral air bubbles can carry a possible number of people but under defined conditions as countries are still imposing entry restrictions including India.
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