India has established a bilateral air bubble arrangement with Sri Lanka for the operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries, the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Saturday.

With this, India now has such pacts with 28 countries, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Canada, France, Germany, Iraq, Japan, the Maldives, Nigeria, Qatar, the UAE, the UK, and the USA.

Under an air bubble pact between two countries, special international passenger flights can be operated by their airlines into each other's territories under restrictive conditions.

''India has finalized an air bubble agreement with Sri Lanka, making it the 6th such arrangement in SAARC region and the 28th in total,'' the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Twitter.

''All the eligible passengers will be able to travel between the 2 countries in the near future,'' it noted. Scheduled international flights have been suspended in India since March 23, 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

However, special international passenger flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat Mission since May last year and under bilateral air bubble arrangements since July.

Air Bubble/Travel bubble, also known as travel bridges, bi-lateral bubble or corona corridors, is a kind of travel arrangement that allows citizens of select countries to travel to other countries. With travel bubbles, the waiting period for travellers coming from countries where the virus has been contained, goes aways. But the two countries need to have confidence and trust in each other to establish such travel arrangements.

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