After a brief suspension of air travel bubble agreement between India and Germany over who is flying more planes, Air India on Friday tweeted that it is resuming flights between India and Germany from 26th October,2020.
After India asked Lufthansa to curtail its schedule, it cancelled all flights to India till 20th October,2020. Following which, Air India too cancelled its flights to Germany till 14th October,2020.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said Lufthansa was flying 20 flights a week while Indian carriers were operating only three to four flights. Lufthanasa was suggested to fly seven flights per week which the carrier rejected.
Commenting on the suspension of air bubble between India and Germany, Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri recently said that talks were on between the two countries. “The issue is not about allowing foreign carriers in or not. We are all for foreign carriers operating here. Make no mistake. But I think the time has come for the message to go out loud and clear that it will not be done at the expense of the Indian carriers. Under the regulated (air bubble) arrangements, we are not insisting on total parity. Even near parity will do,” the minister had said.
Now, Air India has announced that it will be resuming flights to Germany from 26th October,2020.
This suggests that the air travel bubble agreement will remain in place till 28th March,2021.