India to Resume Flights to & From UK On 8 Jan In Staggered Manner

Image used for representational purpose.

(Image: Aroop Mishra/The Quint)

The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Friday, 1 January, said that India and the United Kingdom will resume flight operations from 8 January, but in a staggered manner.

Operations till 23 January will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers.

Airlines will operate flights to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only for the time period, said Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri.

Amid concerns over the new coronavirus variant found in the UK, said to be much more infectious, India had earlier suspended flights to and from the country from 23 December till 7 January.

As many as 29 people, who returned from the UK to India, have tested positive for the new variant so far, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. Eight cases have been found to be positive for the new strain at NCDC, Delhi, seven in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, two at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, and one each at National Institute of Virology, Pune, IGIB and NIBG Kalyani.