Air India has now started direct flights between Goa International Airport and London Heathrow, on a weekly basis. This service is soon expected to be bi-weekly from November onwards under the Air Bubble agreement. The Goa Airport authorities took to Twitter and announced, “Important day for Goa Intn’l Airport. Today Air India starts its direct flight LHR-GOI-LHR, B787. Initially once a week then twice a week from November under Air Bubble. Goa connects to London directly now. This venture will surely promote tourism in the state and flyers will be able to land up in Goa and vice-versa, without much hassles.
UK becomes the 17th country to enter the Air Bubble pact with India
The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has entered into an Air Bubble pact with multiple countries, even though regular international flights remain barred owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Thursday, Vistara Airlines has also announced that it will increase the frequency of its Delhi-London flights to 5 a week from the current count of 4, 21st of November onwards.
Since the month of July, India has instituted a separate bilateral air bubbles with 17 countries, including the UK. In an air bubble agreement between two countries, special international passenger flights can be operated by their airlines to repatriate respective stranded citizens. Since the time of the outbreak of the pandemic, scheduled international flights have been suspended in India. However, under the banner of Vande Bharat Mission, special international passenger flights have been operating in India. In the initial week of October, India had established a bilateral Air Bubble pact with Oman and UK is now the 17th country to do so.
