India opens travel to UK, US, Canada, UAE under the ‘Air Bubbles’ agreement

By: ET Online|Updated: 18 Aug 2020, 01:57 PM IST

1/5 Travelling abroad

Indian flyers holding any kind of valid visa under the ‘Air Bubbles’ agreement can travel to the UK, the US, Canada and UAE, said the Director-General of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) India, reports ANI.

2/5 Visiting India

According to a report by PTI, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders from the US, UK, German and France, with whom India has signed ‘air bubble’ arrangements, will be allowed to visit the country, the Home Ministry announced on Friday.

3/5 Air bubbles

These refer to bilateral agreements India has signed or is in the process of finalising with specific countries to allow commercial flights..

4/4 What next?

According to the earlier guidelines issued by the European Union amid the COVID-19 pandemic, only those holding essential visas were allowed to travel abroad. Recently, Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Puri had confirmed that more air bubbles with other countries are in the pipeline.

5/5 What about Covid-19?

Since August 8, a total of five categories of passengers are exempted from mandatory seven-day institutional quarantine — pregnant women; those who have suffered death in the family; those suffering from serious illness; parents accompanying children below 10 years of age; those who have COVID-negative certificate from a test done 96 hours prior to the journey.