The ‘air bubble’ flights between the UAE and India will be extended till October end, a senior official of India’s civil aviation ministry has told Arabian Business.

The current bilateral arrangement on special ‘bubble’ flight services by airlines of the two countries was due to end on September 30.

“India-UAE air bubble will now be valid till October 31,” the spokesperson for India’s civil aviation ministry said.

Officials at various Indian airlines said they would more or less carry on with the current flight schedule to the UAE for the next month, following the extension of the special bilateral arrangement.

“We have scheduled about 230 or so flights to Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi from various cities across India for September and will be carrying in with this schedule for October as well,” a senior Air India Express official told Arabian Business.

Vistara, the full service Indian private carrier, also said it will continue with their current flight schedules to Dubai for next month.

“Bookings for our Mumbai-Dubai and Delhi-Dubai flights are open till October 24,” the Vistara spokesperson said.

“We don’t have a regular schedule from other (Indian) cities but are open to providing charter services (to the UAE),” the spokesperson added.

Other Indian private carriers such as IndiGo and SpiceJet also operate ‘bubble’ flights to some of the cities in the UAE from multiple Indian cities.

Airline industry sources said airlines are announcing flight schedules only until October 24 as they will have to switch over to the winter schedule from the following day.

Airlines can announce winter flight schedules only after getting approval for them from the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Even as the ‘bubble’ flights to the UAE are extended, there is still no word on whether last week’s decision by Saudi Arabia to ban flights from India – along with Brazil and Argentina – will be revoked any time soon.

Airline industry officials said since it (the ban) is a bilateral issue, only a government-to-government talk can change the situation.

“Saudi Arabia has permitted repatriation flights to bring back stranded passengers from Saudi Arabia to India,” the Indian aviation ministry spokesperson said when asked about whether the ministry has taken up the ban issue with its Saudi counterparts.