Although DGCA has announced the suspension of all regular international flights to and from India until August 31 due to COVID-19 situation, it seems more and more likely that by September we can have our international flight schedule back on track—may be not fully, but—on major routes.
Many international carriers are reportedly giving September dates to passengers to fly out from India, against the already issued tickets for which the journey was not completed due to worldwide suspension of flights. And, now America’s United Airlines has announced that it will be resuming service on close to 30 international routes this September, including to Asia, Australia, India, Israel and Latin America, while also broadening access to popular vacation spots in the Caribbean, Hawaii and Mexico.
The airline said that, in September, it plans on flying 37 percent of its overall schedule from the last period last year, which represents a four-percent increase over its planned capacity for August 2020. United also announced that it will continue to waive customers’ change fees and award redeposit fees through August 31.
Domestically, United intends to fly 40 percent of its schedule, as compared with September 2019. Internationally, United plans on flying 30 percent of its schedule in comparison with the same period in 2019, which is an increase of five percent over its August 2020 operations. United will expand its current service to the Caribbean and Latin America through 20 new routes planned for addition in September, including flights to such popular tourist destinations as Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico, and San Jose and Liberia in Costa Rica.
Further afield, United plans on starting a new, nonstop service between Chicago and Tel Aviv, Israel, as well as restarting eight other routes across the Atlantic and Pacific. Transatlantic flights will connect customers to Europe from Chicago, Houston, New York/Newark, and San Francisco; and planned transpacific routes will include thrice-weekly passenger service between Los Angeles and Sydney, and between Chicago and Hong Kong.
It also mentions continuing service between the United States and Delhi and Mumbai but adds ‘subject to government approval’ condition to it. Thus, it might be another three weeks before we come to know about government decision on resuming regular flights on international routes.