The ministry has released a VB schedule till Aug-30.... so looks like no regular travel till that date at least:
https://www.civilaviation.gov.in/sit...le_flights.pdf

my contact at air india told me that they have been informed that there will be no regular scheduled flights till 6th september....

Ok good to know!

Any idea if there are other options than AI from india to UK non stop. I can see BA selling tickets from mid August.

Has BA been allowed to operate flights to India in August . I did not see any official confirmation on this .:confused:

I have an option of connecting via CDG or MUC but was looking for a direct flight for mrs.ukdoctor.

the government made an announcement yesterday suspending all regular scheduled flights till 31st august....

Vande Bharat
 

It is unbelievable that other countries (apart from some feeble noise by US DOT and France) are allowing these to go on so long.

This is great for temporary survival of Air India.

For weeks, AI was able to collect double the fare for one-way travel with no competition (This is when international travel is down 90 percent)

Sure, people paying high fare are mostly Indian citizens or OCI NRIs and hence your typical Trump voter does not get affected.

At least as far as US destinations are concerned, it seems AI is running more than 60 pct of its pre-COVID flights with hardly any competition.

Welcome!
Wait, even though there are *specific* OCI categories allowed in, are *all* OCIs allowed to enter if they quarantine now??

I am not able to get any clear info saying something like "all OCI's can enter as long as they follow quarantine rules".

So frustrating!

Well, today they announced that all international arrivals have to institutional quarantine for 7 days; followed by home quarantine for 7 days;
(Some exceptions are noted; Negative RTPCR test within past 96 hours is one exception)
https://indianexpress.com/article/ex...rules-6536123/

It appears that now with a negative RT-PCR test within 96 hours, or in cases where travel is for emergent purposes (death or serious illness in family) or if traveling with young children, one can apply to home quarantine instead of submitting to the institutional quarantine:

Has there been any official information about BA being allowed to start flying to India from August 19.

All i can see is one news report and that's it.

The EU3 are operating into India, albeit on a low key semi clandestine fashion. If you have a reason to travel, they will take you to India. With the new rules (96h PCR Covid19 test required) things will get easier.

regular scheduled flights still remain suspended till 31st august....

That's what I do not understand..BA is doing fairly regular flights ex Delhi from 17th August as per their schedule.

The question is whether this is a case of trying to get funds from desperate passengers without any permission to operate the flights ?

BA is allowed to operate to India because AI (and soon SG) is operating to the UK too. So the permission is reciprocal.

other airlines like vistara also released their international schedule for august but the situation still remains the same....no scheduled flights in august....they either released the schedule in anticipation that flights would have resumed post 31st july or once the government announced the extension of the suspension then they would be anticipating that the restrictions will be eased at some point in august & regular international operations will resume....