The Indian government has set a new target date for removing restrictions on scheduled international passenger services.

On March 8, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said international flights will be resumed more broadly starting March 27, which marks the start of the summer schedule season.

Currently, only limited passenger flights are allowed to operate into India under bilateral travel bubble arrangements. There were 37 such agreements with other countries as of March 1.

The ministry said the travel bubble system will end when the flight restrictions are lifted on March 27. IATA issued a statement in February urging India to normalize scheduled international flights and discontinue the travel bubble system.

The suspension of most international flights began back on March 23, 2020, following the coronavirus outbreak. India’s government has previously set targets for the resumption of scheduled services, but they were repeatedly postponed due to surges in COVID-19 cases.

India removed quarantine requirements for most vaccinated inbound international travelers in February.