India said on March 8 that it will resume scheduled commercial flight operations to international destinations from March 27, restarting unrestricted travel after two years and for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
As the ministry of civil aviation said in a statement:
After having recognised the increased vaccination coverage across the globe and in consultation with the stakeholders, the government of India has decided to resume scheduled commercial international passenger services
India currently allows airlines to operate a limited number of flights to countries with which it has a bilateral arrangement under an ‘air bubble’ agreement. This has limited airlines’ operations and hurt their profitability.
This comes as good news for seafarers around the world, who struggle with crew changes. In fact, the last Crew Change Indicator showed that the number of seafarers onboard vessels beyond the expiry of their contract has increased from 3.7% to 4.2% in the last month, while the number of seafarers onboard vessels for over 11 months has remained stable at 0.4%.
The Neptune Indicator also reports a 7% increase in seafarer vaccinations, from 59.8% in January to 66.8% in February, as seafarers are increasingly gaining access to first and second vaccine shots.
