As countries around the world relax restrictions for international travelers, India is also considering eliminating the Air Suvidha requirement, which currently mandates that people arriving from abroad must register before flying into an Indian airport, according to government officials who spoke to The Sunday Express. However, the decision may be at least two months away, as the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare monitors the global Covid-19 situation.
“We have requested the Health Ministry to remove the Air Suvidha requirements, as it could improve the convenience of international travel as traffic grows. However, the Health Ministry has responded, stating that they will review the program in August and make a decision at that time,” said a senior official from the Civil Aviation Ministry.
The Air Suvidha portal was introduced in August 2020 as a mandatory self-reporting portal for incoming international passengers to submit their journey details and vaccination or Covid-19 testing status.
The pre-arrival registration portal also allows authorities to determine if a person is arriving from a high-risk region. Last year, as the Covid-19 variant spread, the Union Health Ministry mandated the submission of details such as the previous 14 days of travel and uploading negative RT-PCR test reports on the Air Suvidha portal before the journey, to identify if a passenger was arriving from any at-risk country.
However, passengers have at times complained about the portal not working and being denied boarding by airlines at foreign airports due to the absence of an Air Suvidha acknowledgement certificate. A traveler who flew from Munich recalled how she was not allowed to check in at the airport unless she filled out the Air Suvidha form and provided the airline with the Air Suvidha number. “It took me an hour to complete the whole process,” she said, adding that she almost missed her flight as a result.
Queries sent via email to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare did not receive a response.
According to the latest official data, more than 75,000 international passengers have been arriving at Indian airports every day for the last month.
Several jurisdictions have a pre-arrival registration requirement that allows health authorities to monitor potentially infected travelers. However, as international travel expands, some countries are eliminating this requirement.
For example, Thailand is removing the need for international arrivals to register for a Thailand Pass with their vaccine certificate and a health insurance policy, effective July 1. Under the new norms, passengers only have to show their vaccine certificates or negative Covid-19 tests upon arrival at a Thai airport.
