India looks at ‘travel bubbles’, domestic fare cap may be extended

NEW DELHI: India will from next month look at creating travel bubbles with countries that allow access to its citizens and vice versa, while immediately scaling up Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) repatriation exercise. The government expects domestic passengers movement to touch half go pre-pandemic level by mid-July after which it will consider allowing schedule international flights under a “bilateral bubble arrangement” with such countries. And, the capping done for domestic fares could be extended beyond August 24 depending on the situation. The fare range was introduced for three months when domestic flights resumed on May 25.

“In pre-pandemic times, we used to have 3-3.5 lakh domestic passengers daily. We started with 30,000 passengers on May 25 and since then have seen a maximum of 72,000 domestic passengers on a day. I expect to reach half of the pre-corona level of 1.5-1.6 lakh domestic travellers before mid-July. At that point, we will consider resuming schedule international flights on a country-by-country basis, depending on who allow our citizens in and we theirs based on a bilateral bubble arrangement,” aviation minister H S Puri said.