(Image source from: business-standard.com)

India is now the most impacted country due to coronavirus and the country has been reporting more than 3 lakh cases per day. The second wave shattered the entire nation and the Indian government asked the states to have a control over the number of cases. Some of the states announced weekend and night curfews after a steep rise in the daily cases. States like Maharashtra and Delhi announced full lockdown. The daily footfalls of domestic airline passengers fell down below 2 lakh passengers for the first time after the flights are operating from May 25th 2020 as per the reports from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Considering the current situation, the international air travel is expected to close again. India undertook the world's largest repatriation drive through Mission Vande Bharat and the government initiated the talks about international traveling. Countries like United Kingdom, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore announced a ban on the flights from India because of the sudden rise in the number of coronavirus cases in India. Several other countries like the United States of America issued a travel advisory for the passengers flying to and from India. New Zealand was the first country to announce ban on Indian travellers to the country.

Israel, Singapore along with the United States imposed travel restrictions in the country. India also formed agreements with some of the countries to fly under air bubble. The countries are Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Ukraine, UAE, United Kingdom, United States and Uzbekistan.

By Siva Kumar