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Aviation Ministry Bans Meals On Flights Having Duration Upto 2 Hours Amid COVID-19 Spike
Aviation Ministry rolled out fresh guidelines on domestic travels and said that airlines are not allowed to serve meals on flights for less than two hours.
Image credits: PTI/Unsplash
Ministry of Civil Aviation on April 12 rolled out fresh guidelines on domestic travel and said that airlines are not allowed to serve meals on flights that have a duration of fewer than two hours amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Citing an increase in novel coronavirus variants, the Civil Aviation Ministry said that the ban will come into effect from April 15. The official letter also stated that when the scheduled domestic flights were resumed on May 25 after the COVID-19 cases surge in 2020, the ministry had allowed serving in-flight meals under specific conditions.
Flights to begin under ‘Air Bubble’ to India Daily News (via HT Media Ltd.)
International flights between India and Sri Lanka are scheduled to commence by the end of this month under a bilateral “air bubble” agreement, Tourism Minister Prasanna Ranatunga confirmed yesterday.
He said the first regular post-pandemic international passenger flight will fly from the BIA to the new international airport in Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh at the end of this month. “Both Sri Lankans and Indians are eligible to travel to and from India and Sri Lanka subject to quarantine regulations of both countries,” he said.
A senior Ministry official said the Indian side had already submitted a set of proposals to the Foreign Ministry and the Tourism Ministry for an air bubble for the commencement of air travel between the two countries.
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India has established a bilateral air bubble arrangement with Sri Lanka for operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries, the Civil Aviation Ministry of India said. With this, India now has such pacts with 28 countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE, the UK and the USA
Under an air bubble pact between two countries, special international passenger flights can be operated by their airlines into each other’s territories under restrictive conditions.
“India has finalised an air bubble agreement with Sri Lanka, making it the 6th such arrangement in SAARC region and the 28th in total,” the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Twitter. “All the eligible passengers will be able to travel between the two countries in the near future,” it noted. Scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since 23 March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Highlights
The ban will come into effect from Thursday, the ministry said in its order.
When scheduled domestic flights were resumed on May 25 after coronavirus lockdown last year, the ministry had allowed the airlines to serve in-flight meals under certain conditions.
On May 25 last year, the country India restarted its domestic passenger flight operations after almost two months due to the lockdown.
The Civil Aviation Ministry on Monday said that airlines are not permitted to serve meals on flights that have a duration of less than two hours amid rising COVID-19 cases in India.
The ban will come into effect from Thursday, the ministry said in its order.