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Friday, March 29 2024
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India is now exploring Bilateral air bubbles to reopen international air travel

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Traveling in a bubble? What’s that? Sci-fi? Nothing like that. It is but a safe travel zone being created to recommence international air travel. And India is set to establish bilateral bubbles with several countries. The concept is borrowed from countries that have managed to negotiate reasonably successfully the COVID19 menace. The Ministry of Civil Aviation is negotiating the setting up of travel bubbles to restart scheduled international passenger flights with a few countries like the United States, Germany, and France.

Bubbles that won’t burst 

The bubble is based on trust between nations – trust in their testing system and their numbers. They believe that they are safer bets than most. Australia and New Zeland are close to creating a Tasman Bubble for the nations in the vicinity and later to other nations close by like Hong Kong and Taiwan. China is not on the agenda for the moment says the Economist. Apparently the Baltic countries of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia too have created a bubble allowing free travel among themselves, while restricting outsiders.

So Testing pre-boarding and arrival is compulsory – methodologies have to be worked out – and quarantines will become unnecessary.

Right now India is in controlled evacuation mode – no reciprocal flights. And this could anger countries which have given them this permission. This may be set to change. “As we contemplate further opening up in response to demands, we are looking at the prospect of establishing individual bilateral bubbles, India-US, India-France, India-Germany, India-UK. These are all destinations where demand for travel has not diminished. Final decisions pursuant to negotiations are expected to be taken soon,” an Aviation Ministry said in an official statement.

The fly in the bubble?

So what could be a fly in the bubble? Other countries’ perception of India as a COVID19 threat. With cases rising rapidly almost at the rate of 15000 and over 400 deaths per day, this could be a major issue. India is now fourth on John Hopkins University dashboard, with only the United States, Brazil, and Russia have reported a larger number of cases.

Also, the lack of reciprocal permission earlier could rebound on its efforts now.

There are also the risks of moving too fast. New Zealand, which had successfully controlled the spread of coronavirus with zero fresh cases for weeks, relaxed the restrictions on travel into the country, only to almost immediately start recording new cases. Following this, the country tightened border restrictions again.

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