Travel Bubble - India has established a bilateral air bubble arrangement with neighbouring Island country Sri Lanka .

Is it the First Bubble agreement for India ?

Definitely not !  Termed as 6th such arrangement in SAARC region & the 28th globally, Indian Civil Aviation Ministry said to have established a bilateral air bubble arrangement with neighbouring Island country Sri Lanka .

The Travel Bubble aims for the operation of special international passenger flights between the two countries, as announced on Saturday .

What are the other countries with the bubble ?

With this new bubble, India now has such pacts with 28 countries, including Kuwait,  Qatar, UAE,  Afghanistan, Bahrain,  Canada,  France,  Germany,  Iraq,  Japan,  the Maldives,  Nigeria, the UK and the USA.

When Pandemic closed the borders internationally, Bubble agreements came handy , under an air bubble agreements  between two countries, special international passenger flights, mostly citizen evacuation flights can be operated by their airlines into each other's territories under restrictive conditions.

The Indian Civil Aviation Ministry said , "India has finalized an air bubble agreement with Sri Lanka, making it the 6th such arrangement in SAARC region and the 28th in total. All the eligible passengers will be able to travel between the 2 countries in the near future," .

Under restrictive measures and continuous lockdowns due to pandemic, India has suspended Scheduled international flights  since March 23, 2020.

For the indian context , Special bilateral bubble agreements like this one has paved the way for the international passenger flights since July and the evacuation flights since May ,operating under the Vande Bharat Mission.