Flights from UK suspended until December 31 | Economic Times

As a new strain of Coronavirus was detected in the United Kingdom, India bans all flights to and from the country starting tomorrow till the end of this year.“Considering the prevailing situation in (the) UK. Govt. of India has decided that all flights originating from UK to India to be suspended till 31st December 2020 (23.59 hours). This suspension to start w.e.f. 23.59 hours, 22nd December 2020. Consequently flights from India to UK shall stand temporarily suspended during the above said period,” the aviation ministry said in a tweet.Every passenger arriving from the UK, will also have to be tested upon arrival. “As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 23.59 hrs) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned,” the ministry said in a series of tweets.Countries across Europe, which include The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, and Canada have banned travellers from the UK since Sunday, a day after the country ordered a lockdown in London and surrounding areas, citing concerns over spreading of the new variant of the coronavirus.This new strain of virus and flights cancellations have come at a time, when the Indian government is planning to start normal international flights with COVID infections in the country on a declining trend and start of vaccination in the UK and the US. India has also announced that the vaccine will be available from January next year.