India finalises 'Air Bubble' agreement with Sri Lanka

New Delhi: India and Sri Lanka have finalised an 'Air Bubble' agreement, allowing the operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries in the near future.

"Attention travellers! India has finalised an air bubble agreement with Sri Lanka, making it the 6th such arrangement in the SAARC region & the 28th in total. All the eligible passengers will be able to travel between the 2 countries in the near future. Travel safe!" said a tweet by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Currently, international flights are operated under the 'Air Bubble' agreements between India and 28r countries including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE, the UK and the USA.

However, this special arrangement mandates certain prerequisites along with permissions that are needed for passengers to undertake travel.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020. But special international passenger flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May last year and under bilateral air bubble arrangements since July.