The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday delayed the resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger airline services to or from India, mentioning that it will notify its decision on the same in due time. In a meeting late last month, the central government had announced that commercial international flights shall resume from December 15, after a long hiatus of more than 20 months in between. That decision, however, came under renewed scrutiny as recently as last Sunday, when the government reviewed the strategy following reports of omicron’s emergence.
Now, a notice issued by the regulatory body on civil aviation today confirmed that the central government is indeed hitting the brakes on the resumption of commercial international flights and that the relevant authorities are monitoring the global coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation, especially in the wake of the emergence of the new omicron variant which is said to be highly contagious and capable of undergoing rapid mutations.
