Air Travel

Days of chaos in air travel in the US did not ease up Sunday as people returned home from holiday trips, with more than 2,000 flights cancelled due to bad weather or airline staffing woes sparked by a surge in Covid cases.

Diamonds worth about Rs 6 crore that were attempted to be smuggled have been recovered and an air traveller arrested in this connection, the Customs said on Wednesday.

A U.S. judge ordered Air Canada and Lufthansa to preserve travel records for use as evidence by a former high-level Saudi official who claims Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to have him killed.

Rapid and still-evolving border restrictions in response to the omicron variant have submerged air-travel demand yet again, throwing a long-awaited recovery into uncertainty.

Two international air travellers, including a child, from 'at risk' nations have tested positive for COVID-19 on their arrival in Tamil Nadu early this morning. The state government, however, has denied reports that they were cases of Omicron.

Airlines have been advised to allocate the preferred seat to Member of Parliaments (MPs) during air travel, said Minister of State for Civil Aviation General VK Singh in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Maharashtra Chief Secretary Debashish Chakravarty on Thursday said the state government was considering a revision of its air travel guidelines, a day after the Centre wrote to the state saying its order was in divergence with the COVID-19 SoPs.

Air travellers to the United States will face tougher COVID-19 testing rules to try to slow the spread of the Omicron variant and other countries tightened border controls as a European leader urged all concerned to "prepare for the worst".

Air travellers to the United States will face tougher COVID-19 testing rules, as several countries moved to seal-off their borders amid heightened uncertainty around the virulence of the Omicron variant and its ability to dodge existing vaccines.

Canada, seeking to halt the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, will require people arriving by air from all nations except the United States to take a COVID-19 test, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said on Tuesday.

The state government said that travel guidelines issued by the Centre on November 28 in view of 'Omicron', the new strain of Covid that has been designated a variant of concern, will act as "minimum restrictions".

International air travel is likely to cost more this winter, at least two to three times what used to cost before the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on from where a person intends to fly from Delhi.

Passengers will have to submit a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal and include travel history for the past two weeks. They will also be required to upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test report.

Delhi High Court sought response of the Centre and aviation body DGCA on a plea seeking to do away with the mandatory online self-declaration form which has to be filled up by the passengers before boarding a flight that they are Covid negative.

India has the potential to attain the top position in air travel in about a decade, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Wednesday, underlining the government's commitment to pushing the sunrise sector to scale new heights.

Days of chaos in air travel in the US did not ease up Sunday as people returned home from holiday trips, with more than 2,000 flights cancelled due to bad weather or airline staffing woes sparked by a surge in Covid cases.

Diamonds worth about Rs 6 crore that were attempted to be smuggled have been recovered and an air traveller arrested in this connection, the Customs said on Wednesday.

A U.S. judge ordered Air Canada and Lufthansa to preserve travel records for use as evidence by a former high-level Saudi official who claims Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is trying to have him killed.

Rapid and still-evolving border restrictions in response to the omicron variant have submerged air-travel demand yet again, throwing a long-awaited recovery into uncertainty.

Two international air travellers, including a child, from 'at risk' nations have tested positive for COVID-19 on their arrival in Tamil Nadu early this morning. The state government, however, has denied reports that they were cases of Omicron.

Airlines have been advised to allocate the preferred seat to Member of Parliaments (MPs) during air travel, said Minister of State for Civil Aviation General VK Singh in Lok Sabha on Thursday.

Maharashtra Chief Secretary Debashish Chakravarty on Thursday said the state government was considering a revision of its air travel guidelines, a day after the Centre wrote to the state saying its order was in divergence with the COVID-19 SoPs.

Air travellers to the United States will face tougher COVID-19 testing rules to try to slow the spread of the Omicron variant and other countries tightened border controls as a European leader urged all concerned to "prepare for the worst".

Air travellers to the United States will face tougher COVID-19 testing rules, as several countries moved to seal-off their borders amid heightened uncertainty around the virulence of the Omicron variant and its ability to dodge existing vaccines.

Canada, seeking to halt the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant, will require people arriving by air from all nations except the United States to take a COVID-19 test, Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said on Tuesday.

The state government said that travel guidelines issued by the Centre on November 28 in view of 'Omicron', the new strain of Covid that has been designated a variant of concern, will act as "minimum restrictions".

International air travel is likely to cost more this winter, at least two to three times what used to cost before the COVID-19 pandemic, depending on from where a person intends to fly from Delhi.

Passengers will have to submit a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal and include travel history for the past two weeks. They will also be required to upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test report.

Delhi High Court sought response of the Centre and aviation body DGCA on a plea seeking to do away with the mandatory online self-declaration form which has to be filled up by the passengers before boarding a flight that they are Covid negative.

India has the potential to attain the top position in air travel in about a decade, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Wednesday, underlining the government's commitment to pushing the sunrise sector to scale new heights.