The Government of India has facilitated the repatriation and international travel of over 20 lakh people through different means since 6th May 2020, said Hardeep Singh Puri, MoS, I/C, Civil Aviation. Interacting with media persons in New Delhi yesterday, the Minister said that under Vande Bharat Mission, 17,11,128 people have travelled back to India and 2,97,536 people have travelled out of India.
Speaking about international travel, Puri informed that Government of India has formalized air bubble arrangements with 16 countries like USA, Canada, France, Germany, UK, Maldives, UAE, Qatar, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Japan, Nigeria, Kenya, Iraq, Bhutan and Oman.
He added that Government is in discussion with Italy, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and others for similar arrangements. He further said that domestic operations were started in calibrated manner with 33 per cent capacity of the approved summer schedule w.e.f. 25th May 2020, enhanced to 45 per cent from 26th June and 60 per cent from 2nd Sep 2020. More than 1.2 crore domestic passengers have flown since 25th May 2020. 1,56,565 passengers travelled on 1525 flights yesterday.
