India scraps Air Suvidha online system
Trivandrum: India’s aviation authorities have done away with Air Suvidha, an online system for international passengers to submit self-declaration on their current health status.
The decision comes as a great relief for expatriates who were making the demand for quite some time now.
Kerala lawmaker Dr Shashi Tharoor thanked Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for acceding to his plea and that of thousands of frequent travellers to India.
Last week, the senior Congress leader urged the federal minister to review the requirement and “lit the dead hand of bureaucracy!”
“Air Suvidha was introduced when Covid was at its peak, aiming to track people landing in Indian airports,” Dr Tharoor had tweeted.
“With normal life back, why is it still mandatory for flyers to India to submit Air Suvidha?”
Air Suvidha form had been made mandatory and all international passengers entering the country via flights had to fill it out before boarding.
Last year, the civil aviation and health ministries mandated contactless self-declaration at the Air Suvidha portal to ensure the smooth passage of all international travellers.
It was part of the measures to check the spread of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 and the filling of their details was compulsory for arriving international passengers.
The authorities launched the Air Suvidha portal in August 2020 and strengthened it to accommodate travel guidelines issued on Nov.30, 2021.
Meanwhile, Cochin International Airport (CIAL) has announced the launch of its business jet terminal on Dec.10.
In a press release on Tuesday, the airport authorities said the terminal was going to be India’s charter gateway, integrating business jet service, tourism and conferences.
The company, promoted largely by expatriate investors, decided to convert its old domestic terminal into an anchor of business jets seven years back.
Its international terminal started serving domestic flights after the opening of a 1.5 million square feet integrated international terminal.
It now joins “the elite club” of four Indian airports having dedicated private jet terminals and it takes two minutes for the passenger to reach the “car door to the aircrat.”