United Airlines of the United States has got the permission to operate three special flights on the Delhi-Newark route starting 10 July to fly those people who want to travel to America along the lines of India’s Vande Bharat Mission. The airline will operate flights from Delhi on 10, 12 and 15 July, has already opened ticket bookings. A ticket on these Delhi-Newark special flights may be priced around Rs 55,000. But, it cannot carry passengers from Newark to India on these flights.
The US-based United Airlines is already in touch with Indian government to grant them approval to operate regular scheduled flights for India, which is under consideration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and other authorities in the country now.
“We have received the request from United Airlines for the scheduled flights and it is under consideration,” said a ministry of civil aviation official.
The US government had earlier accused India of discriminating against its airlines as only Air India had been carrying passengers to and from the US and decided to restrict the Vande Bharat Mission from 22 July. After which India’s aviation regulator DGCA said, “International scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes on a case to case basis, and India was working on creating a travel bubble with US, Canada and European countries to resume international flights to and from these countries.” However, scheduled international passenger flights will now remain suspended till 31 July.
The airline wants to operate scheduled flights from both Delhi- Mumbai to Newark -San Francisco routes. The airline was also trying for more such special flights to India and also seeking the permission to carry both onward and return passengers.
The United Airlines in their statement said ”We are operating three repatriation flights from Delhi to Newark on the 10th, 12th and 15th, and operating them consistent with the current Indian restrictions on international flights departing India. Customers can purchase tickets through our website united. com or United app.”