Tourism fraternity delighted & hopeful with the resumption of scheduled International flights

Priyanka Saxena Ray

“As President TAAI and Vice Chairperson FAITH, I would like to applaud the government, Ministry of Civil Aviation & Ministry of Health for finally agreeing to open commercial flights. We have been advocating to open flights continuously since long as we strongly believe that we need to start accepting the virus & start living a normal life or else the industry will die of starvation. MoCA & MoT have been working in a collaborative manner & soon the e-visa for travel into India will also be opened to facilitate inbound travellers once again. The industry needs to come back into action & start planning for outbound as the holiday season will soon start in India. Opening of commercial flights will bring about ease of travel, lower costs & more choice. Most of the countries are now removing strict protocols & opening borders & I am sure everyone around the world is wanting to experience life, connect back with the world, friends, family and business associates after a long period of 2 years

Jyoti Mayal, President, TAAI and Vice Chairperson FAITH

“It is a sigh of relief for us as we had almost zero income for the past 2 years in the absence of foreign tourist arrival. Wholeheartedly we welcome the decision, however, it was also a much-awaited one too, as in the absence of normal running of international flights the opening of Tourist Visas including e-Tourist Visa from November 15 was not much of help as airfares were exorbitantly high. This normalisation of flight operation would reduce the airfares and make it attractive for foreign tourists to visit India for leisure and other industry. We further appeal to the government to resume all visas that were issued earlier and were cancelled, to resume multiple entry visa and to resume e-Visa for the countries which have been barred particularly from the source markets like UK, Canada etc.”

Rajiv Mehra, President, Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO)

“We at OTOAI couldn’t be happier with this news. Continuing with our efforts, OTOAI had written to Shri Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Honourable Minister of Civil Aviation, just two days back, requesting him to start scheduled international flights from India. With the opening up of world tourism, relaxation in Covid restrictions and India coming on the Green List of most countries, we feel that the announcement regarding starting scheduled international flights couldn’t have come at a better time. The resumption of international scheduled flights, which were discontinued for last two years, will boost the confidence of Indian travellers, who is yearning for an international holiday. The outbound sector in India has suffered immensely in the last two years and we are all hopeful that the surge in travel will help us to revive atleast some bit of our losses.”

Riaz Munshi, President, OTOAI

“It’s a huge relief that our Government has finally decided to do away with the air bubbles and to open up the Indian skies to scheduled commercial aviation again. We hope that health requirements will also be tweaked adequately and that all airlines will now move swiftly to restore schedules and capacity. Unfortunately we lost the entire incoming season and inbound tour operators will have to survive somehow for another six months but the resumption of flights spells some hope for the summer outbound summer travel season. The Rupee sadly has depreciated significantly and that will make foreign travel more expensive but hopefully the capacity increase might bring down international airfares to more realistic levels to even things out. There is a tremendous pent up demand and we should see a significant uptick in bookings.”

Ajay Prakash, President, Travel Agents Federation of India (TAFI)

“Global travel will become easier as the regular commercial international flights resume later this month. Today’s announcement to resume international passenger flights is a welcome move for domestic and international travellers who have been waiting for a long time to make travel plans. We are pleased that these measures will once again give a big boost to foreign tourism in the country.”

Ankush Nijhawan, Joint Managing Director, TBO TEK Limited

“We welcome the government’s decision to allow resumption of scheduled commercial international flight operations from India. This step will provide impetus to the economic recovery for the sector and the nation, with borders opening for tourists. We look forward to connecting our customers to the people and places they love. We will soon be announcing the schedule for our international destinations, in accordance with these new guidelines.”