Canada to Lift Ban on Flights from India from 27 September

Key Highlights:

• Overview
• Safety measures
• Ban on Indian Flights

According to a press release on the government’s website, the Canadian government has planned to lift the restrictions on non-essential travel from India to the country from 27 September 2021.

Safety Measures

Travellers from India will still have to comply with mandatory public safety measures like Covid testing and quarantine. Apart from these, the following measures are in force:

• The travellers must have proof of a negative Covid-19 molecular test (like PCR, LAMP and CRISPR) from the Genestrings Laboratory, situated at the Delhi airport, taken within 18 hours before the departure from India.
• Before boarding, the airline operators will check the traveller’s Covid test result to ensure that it is still valid for entering Canada. They will also ensure that fully vaccinated travellers have filled their information on the ArriveCAN website or mobile app.

After the direct flights resume, those Indian travellers who went through an indirect route to Canada (like the United States) will still need to have a negative Covid report within 72 hours of their departure.

Ban on Indian Flights 

The country had initially banned all flights from India direct and non-essential flights from India in April after witnessing the high number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

Since then, only military flights, medical transfers, and cargo operations were running between the countries, while Canada kept increasing the ban. 

The country had also banned direct flights from Morocco, which is still in effect until the 29th of this month.