LONDON: On New Year’s Day, Hardeep Singh Puri, the Civil Aviation Minister of India, made an announcement through his Twitter handle that flights would be allowed to resume from India to the United Kingdom (UK) on January 6, followed by a resumption of UK to India flights on January 8. At present only 30 flights have been allowed to fly. According to ministry sources, the situation would be reviewed after January 23, 2020. The decision comes after a request from European Union to ease the ban on UK travel, after India banned all flights to and from the UK on December 21,2020. Although, Britain has entered another nationwide lockdown from today.
The government has also issued new Standard Operating Procedures(SOPs) at airports. It is now mandatory for all the international passengers to undergo self-paid RT-PCR Test on their arrival at the airports apart from submitting a self-declaration form on the online portal, www.newdelhiairport.in, at least 72 hours before the travel and carrying negative RT-PCR test with them. If any person is tested positive for coronavirus, he will be isolated in a unit managed by State Health Authorities. The airlines have been tasked with ensuring the implementation of SOPs.