India to resume scheduled international flights from December 15 for all countries except THESE 14 - Check full list

On Friday, the Civil Aviation Ministry announced that scheduled international flights to and from India will resume from December 15. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduled international flights were suspended in India since March 23, 2020. 

However, special passenger flights have been operating since July last year under air bubble arrangements with around 28 countries. The Civil Aviation Ministry wrote a letter to aviation regulator DGCA asking it to take "further necessary action" for the resumption of scheduled international flights.

India will restart scheduled regular international flights operations to several destinations except for the barred 14 countries. 

Check the full list here - Including post-arrival testing (at-risk countries)

1. Countries in Europe including the UK.
2. South Africa
3. Brazil
4. Bangladesh
5. Botswana
6. China
7. Mauritius
8. New Zealand
9. Zimbabwe
10. Singapore
11. Hong Kong
12. Israel
13. Hong Kong 
14. Israel 

Earlier this month, India identified 10 countries "at-risk" including Europe, China, South Africa, and New Zealand, among others, and has opened its borders to 99 countries overall.

The resumption of flights would be based on the coronavirus risk levels of individual countries, according to a formal government order.

India, the world's second-worst affected country by COVID-19, posted the smallest rise in new cases this week, due to increased vaccinations and antibodies in a large section of its population from previous infections.

India's daily caseload has halved since September and it reported 10,549 new cases on Friday.

(With agency inputs)