NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) instructed the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to prioritise the foreign ad hoc flights carrying Covid-19 pandemic relief materials to India, has lifted the restrictions and allowed such flights to operate to any Indian airport with customs and immigration facilities.

Earlier in December 2020, DGCA had restricted the operations of all foreign ad hoc and pure non-scheduled freighter charter service flights to six Indian airports namely Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai.

A recent communication from MoCA to DGCA dated reads, “The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has had a severe impact across the country. As a measure to overcome the present humanitarian crisis, it has now been decided to allow operations of foreign ad hoc and pure non-scheduled all-cargo services (including charters and P2C flights) carrying medical supplies including all raw materials, components and other materials required for the domestic industry for handling Covid-19 pandemic situation, temporarily for a period of 2 months or till further orders whichever is earlier, to/from any airport in India where customs/immigration facilities are available. These operations will be subject to compliance with applicable safety regulations for the carriage of such cargo. DGCA may ensure that due priority is accorded in granting clearance of such flights.”

Since the Indian second wave of Covid-19 pandemic became deadly, many foreign countries and international associations are sending relief materials including oxygen concentrators, oxygen generator plants, ventilators and other relief materials.

Recently CMA CGM Air Cargo, the newly created airfreight division of the CMA CGM group, flew to India for the first time ever a free of charge chartered Airbus A330-200 freighter carrying 28 tonnes of medical equipment worth over Rs. 17 crore from Paris to Delhi on behalf of the Government of France.

United Airlines, FedEx and National Airlines also recently operated chartered flights to India carrying various relief supplies from the United States on behalf of the federal government as well as other various international organisations.

Meanwhile, airlines are also using their scheduled flights to carry pandemic related materials. For example, Lufthansa’s scheduled flight LH760 from Frankfurt to Delhi had a total of around ten tonnes of medical equipment.

Indian airlines like SpiceJet, IndiGO and GOAir are also participating in the effort to procure Covid related relief supplies.