Passengers who booked Dec 23 flight to UK will be accommodated in first flight out: Air India

New Delhi: In light of the announcement made by Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri that flights between India and UK will resume from January 8, Air India on Friday said that the passengers who had booked their flight on December 23 will be accommodated in the first flight out.

“All the passengers had been contacted on December 22 and their booked flights were rescheduled. Today after the announcement, SMS messages and mails have gone to the passengers informing them of the rescheduled date of travel. The passengers who booked their flight on December 23 will be accommodated in the first flight out,” the airline said in a press note.

“It has been decided that flights between India and the UK will resume from January 8, 2021. Operations till January 23 will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers of two countries to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only,” the Minister had said in a tweet.

On December 30, the Ministry had decided to extend the temporary suspension of flights to and from the UK till January 7.

The government had imposed a ban on flights coming to India from the UK with effect from December 22 in the view of a new strain of COVID-19 detected in the UK.

The government has extended the suspension of scheduled commercial international flights till January 31, 2021 in the wake of COVID-19. However, restrictions shall not apply on special flights and international air cargo operations approved by the Director-General of Civil Aviation.