Travel between Japan and India to go up as Japan Airlines, Air India to operate special flights from Nov under Air Bubble
The authorities have also eased visa norms for Japanese traveling to India. With this, the flow of Japanese nationals to India is likely to go up in the next few months. About 1,000 Japanese nationals traveled to India since August.
NEW DELHI: Japan’s flag carrier Japan Airlines Limited (JAL) has announced to operate nine flights from Tokyo to New Delhi from November 17.
The flight dates are November 17, 20, 28, December 4, 19, and January 9, 16, 19, and 28.
The announcement comes in the wake of the air bubble system set up between India and Japan. This has made the air passengers on both sides to travel between Japan and India without depending on the charter flights system and doing away with the long procedures of applying for travel permission with Japan embassy for a special visa to fly to India.
Now the passengers are not required to register themselves with the respective embassies, and they can book their tickets straight with the airlines. They can purchase airline tickets on the airline’s website.
However, earlier Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry in India (JCCII) had taken the lead in arranging a total of seven charter flights (including the one scheduled on October 31) since August. Six of these flights were operated by JAL, and one by ANA. About 1,000 Japanese nationals traveled to India during this period.
Apart from these flights between November and January by JAL, the visa application procedure will also return to normal as the passengers can apply by themselves. Earlier, they were supposed to submit a letter of recommendation with the JCCII that was arranging charter flights from Japan to India.
With the procedure of applying for a visa getting simplified, more and more Japanese now can travel to India.
On the other hand, India’s state carrier Air India has already announced to start its service from New Delhi to Japan from November 2 to December 28, and from Tokyo to Delhi from November 4 to December 30.
With this, the flow of Japanese coming to India is likely to look up in the next few months as business activities in India have taken place with all business establishments working as normal despite the fear of Coronavirus looming large.
The Japanese government authorities though have recommended its citizens not to travel to India in the wake of the rising number of COVID-19 positive cases and poor air quality index.
However, since the business activities are returning to the normal standard gradually making it important for the Japanese professionals to travel to India, the JCCII has assured them of full support in India.
According to JCCII despite an increase in the COVID-19 cases in India the economic activities in the new normal have taken off. Therefore, there is a strong need to return to India, and JCCII would support the movement of Japanese between Japan and India so that they can live and work in India with peace of mind.
