TravTalk India Online Magazine
While air travel bubbles are a safer approach to starting international commercial flights, it’s not an easy feat to achieve. Some travel agents are happy with these international connections, others are still confused. The bottom line remains that the country had to start somewhere, so why shy from employing the safest possible way to travel during a pandemic.
Nisha Verma
Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri recently announced the opening of air travel bubbles between India and select countries, namely France, US and the UAE. He asserted that these bilateral air travel bubbles will be the only way forward to resume international travel amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. “Until international civil aviation can reclaim its pre-COVID numbers, the answer lies in bilateral air bubbles that will carry a possible number of people under defined conditions as countries, including India, are still imposing entry restrictions,” he said at the time of announcing the routes under the arrangement.
A difficult task at hand
While the air bubbles are currently limited to the destinations mentioned earlier, talks are on with Germany for operating Lufthansa and Air India to Frankfurt as well. As of now, it’s not easy to open up these bubbles to every country, since bilateral talks regarding procedures at both destinations take time and not each country is comfortable opening its borders to everyone.
Echoing the sentiment is Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, who feels that there is a lot of complexity involved in setting them up. “It is not a simple task. There are bilateral agreements involved between the two countries. It’s not only the immigration department involved, but also health departments and ministries of health of the respective destinations. However, the countries need to agree to have enough trust in the healthcare system of the respective destination to allow people to travel across their borders.”
Manoj Saraf, Managing Director, Gainwell Travel, agrees. “Every country is going to devise its own policies regarding allowing a foreign carrier to land in their country,” he says, adding that one way to avoid chaos is for the travel agent to keep clients updated on the constantly changing flight schedules and security norms not only at the time of booking but even a day before the flight.
But, creates safe zones
While there can be complexities involved, the travel trade is happy. Jay Bhatia, Vice President, TAAI, says, “Having air bubbles is the most secure way of travelling currently, because if we have connecting flights and the bubbles are not created, there will be multiple complications with the rules and regulations that need to be followed. The direct flights under bubbles are much better and easier to follow from point to point. Hence, people don’t have to move around in transiting to some other airport and get through other channels of security, immigration, lounges, transit areas, etc. It should have happened earlier, nevertheless, it’s a positive start.”
Biji Eapen, President, IATA Agents Association of India, shares the same opinion as Bhatia and appreciates the government’s decision to create these air travel bubbles to boost international flight operations.
“It is not yet clear when a more widespread re-opening of borders will occur, and under what conditions. Air ticket prices can be brought down if India establishes bilateral air bubble arrangements with more countries, allowing more airlines to operate. After India and the UAE entered a bilateral pact for resuming international operations, ticket prices have been dropped to `13,000,” he shares.
Ground reality may differ
There still seems to be some amount of confusion regarding the situation. Zahoor Qari, Chairman, TAAI – Jammu & Kashmir Chapter, says, “It is totally confusing as we are unable to understand these operations. We have not received a single booking for these flights. There has been no notification so far, and we can’t say much. Either people are not ready to travel or whosoever is in France or in the US, is not ready to come to India. Currently, I don’t think these bubbles will be successful, keeping in view that everybody is afraid of COVID-19. When the country is seeing the number of COVID patients increasing day by day, the government has initiated these air bubbles. Opening it to the general public is not feasible yet.”
Mahendra Vakharia, Immediate Past President, OTOAI, says that air bubbles will be a good thing for those who are stuck in these countries or want to go back to these countries. But, Air India was turning out to be a difficult proposition since it was difficult to book and the fare was also very high initially, which was reduced later on Vande Bharat flights. With more airlines opening, it’d be helpful as it will take some pressure off Air India and we will be able to facilitate bookings. We still need some clarity,” he says.
