Vande Bharat Mission: Air India To Operate 36 Flights Between India And USA From 11-19 July

US Transportation Department ha accused the Indian government of engaging in "unfair and discriminatory practices" on charter air transportation services to and from India.

(Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: National carrier Air India in a statement on Sunday announced that it will operate 36 flights between India and US starting from July 11 till July 19 under Vande Bharat Mission. Going by the official notice released by the company, tickets may be booked through Air India website only effective 20:00 hours (IST) on 6 July, equivalent to New York (EDT 1030 hrs of 6' July 2020), Chicago (CDT 0930 hrs of 6 July 2020) & San Francisco (PDT 0730 hrs of 6 July 2020).

#FlyAI : Kind attention please, an important update regarding flights between India and USA under Vande Bharat Mission. pic.twitter.com/O56TqBldvb

— Air India (@airindiain) July 5, 2020

This has come almost two weeks after the US Transportation Department on June 23 issued a notification asking Indian air carriers to apply for authorization prior to operating charter flights. It accused the Indian government of engaging in "unfair and discriminatory practices" on charter air transportation services to and from India. The department in its notification said, “We are notifying National Aviation Company of India Ltd, (Air India), a foreign air carrier of India that holds economic authority from Dept that it'll be required, effective 30 days after the service date of this Order...: Department of Transportation, USA. ...to obtain prior approval from the Department in the form of a statement of authorization before operating any Third- and/or Fourth-Freedom charter flights to or from the United States: Department of Transportation, United States of America.” READ HERE | 'Looking At Bilateral Bubbles Between Countries': India Responds To US Allegations Over Vande Bharat Giving a befitting response to United States' allegations of "unfair and discriminatory practices", the Civil Aviation Ministry said that it is examining the requests it received from the US, France, Germany, and other countries to operate similar flights. In its clarification, the ministry had said that it received requests from concerned authorities in several countries including US, France, Germany among others requesting that their air carriers be allowed to participate in the transportation of passengers along the line being conducted by Air India under Vande Bharat Mission