April 13: Aiming to ease travel between the countries, India now has signed an air bubble arrangement with Sri Lanka adding it to the list of overseas destination for the Indians to travel to.
Currently, India has managed to arrange air bubble deal with 27 countries including countries like the United States, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, France, Canada, Iraq, Germany, Kenya, Japan, Nepal, the Netherlands, Oman, Nigeria, Qatar, the United Kingdom, and the United Arab Emirates. As Sri Lanka is reopening for travel, the Maldives will likely be facing any competition in terms of attracting Indian tourists.
According to the records, India has emerged as a single inbound tourism source market for the Maldives during the Covid pandemic. Furthermore, Indians ‘might’ also find another neighbouring foreign destination for travel, Thailand.
Also read: India extends travel restrictions with the United Kingdom till mid-April
As of now, India has further extended the closure of its regular international commercial flights given the rising pandemic situation. The ban on international commercial flights has been extended till April 30. However, this ban may also be extended further.
At the same time, special international passenger flights have been operating either under the arranged air bubbles or under Vande Bharat Mission flights in place since last year.
The Aviation Ministry tweeted referring to this and stated, “India has finalised an air bubble agreement with Sri Lanka, making it the sixth such arrangement in SAARC region and 28th in total. All eligible passengers will be able to travel between the two countries in the near future.”
