NEW DELHI, Jan 1: India has extended the ban on international flights till January 31. Imposed in last March, the ban was extended several times and the last extension was to end on December 31.

However, the flights under the Vande Bharat Mission and the bubble agreements will continue, except the UK flights. The special flights and cargo flights will not be affected.

The temporary suspension of UK flights till December 31 due to the spread of coronavirus mutant there, was extended by a week. The flights were suspended on December 22. There were over 60 flights between the UK and India under the bubble agreement.

The ban on UK flights will be partially lifted on January 8, said Hardeep Puri, Minister for Civil Aviation, on Friday. He said 15 weekly flights each per country will be operated till January 23.

“It has been decided that flights between India and UK will resume from 8 Jan 2021. Operations till 23 Jan will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers of the two countries to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only. DGCA will issue the details shortly,” Puri tweeted.

India has bilateral bubble agreements with 24 countries: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (USA).