The order came days after the federal government decided not to resume scheduled international flights from Dec 15, which was announced last month, according to Anadolu Agency (AA).

A notification by the country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) yesterday said that “the competent authority has decided to extend the suspension of scheduled international commercial passenger services to and from India” until the end of January.

Stating that the restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specially approved by the DGCA, the authority noted that flights may be allowed on selected routes on a case-by- case basis.

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic, commercial flights were suspended from March 23, 2020.

Currently, flights on various international routes are operated under temporary arrangements.

On Nov 26, authorities said they would resume international flight operations from Dec 15.

But that decision was reversed a few days later, on Dec 1, “in view of the evolving global scenario with the emergence of new variants of concern”.

From a staggering peak of more than 400,000 Covid-19 cases and 4,500 deaths per day, the South Asian country is now seeing a decline in new infections.

India’s health ministry said 9,419 new cases were registered in the country yesterday, taking the total to 34.6 million, while there were 159 more fatalities, raising the death toll to 474,111.

The ministry also said the country’s vaccination coverage has crossed the 1.31 billion doses milestone.

According to the health authorities, the country has also detected several Omicron cases in different parts of the country.