West Bengal has withdrawn the ban on incoming international flights effective from Tuesday, which is February 15. However, international passengers either have to be fully vaccinated or go through an RT-PCR test within 72 hours from flight departure, an official statement reads. The state government has done in this light of the covid situation improving over time.
Furthermore, West Bengal had also recently began to ease the domestic travel restrictions, due to the same aforementioned reason. In fact, other states have also began to do the same. For example, daily domestic flights from Delhi and Mumbai had gotten back on track recently as well.
However, back in January, there was a suspension of scheduled international passenger flights in India, which was supposed to be extended till February 28, aviation regulator DGCA had said. This was a continuation of the scheduled international passenger flight ban which has been in place in India since March 23, 2020. However, special passenger flights have been operating between India and approximately 40 countries since July 2020 under air bubble arrangements formed with them.
A circular issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) states, “The competent authority has decided to extend the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hrs IST of February 28, 2022."
This restriction was not applied to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by the DGCA.
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Additionally, fights under air bubble arrangement were not be affected. The DGCA had on November 26, 2021, announced that India will resume scheduled international passenger flights from December 15, 2021. Just a day later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the Civil Aviation Ministry and the DGCA to review its decision in wake of the rising concerns of the COVID-19 variant Omicron.
Moreover, the West Bengal government had announced in January that flights to Kolkata from Delhi and Mumbai will be allowed to operate only twice a week– on Monday and Friday, given the surge of Covid-19 cases experienced by the state at the beginning of the year.
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