In a major development, country's aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has extended the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger flights to December 31. The restrictions, however, will not apply on international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA, an official circular said.

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DGCA in the circular said, "In partial modification of circular dated 26.6.2020, the competent authority has further extended the validity of circular issued on the subject cited above regarding scheduled international commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hours (IST) of December 31, 2020." International scheduled flights, however, may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on a case-to-case basis, the circular added.

The suspension of international commercial passenger flights from/to India, which has been in place since March 23 in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, was to expire on November 30.

In the absence of regular flight service on overseas routes, special international flights are being operated under the Vande Bharat Mission since May and under bilateral "air bubble" arrangements with selected countries since July.

Meanwhile,  a top IATA official has said that global airlines' losses will be USD 118.5 billion in 2020 and USD 38.7 billion in 2021, which are deeper than the losses forecast in June as the second half of this year has been very disappointing. In June, it was forecast that the global airlines industry might lose something like USD 84.3 billion in 2020, and USD 15.8 billion in 2021, said Brian Pearce, Chief Economist, International Air Transportation Association (IATA). The IATA represents around 290 airlines across the world comprising 82 per cent of global air traffic.

Global air traffic has reduced drastically in 2020 due to coronavirus-triggered travel restrictions.