Air Travellers

China to reopen its borders to tourists, resume all visas Wednesday

China will reopen its borders to tourists and resume issuing all visas on Wednesday after a three-year halt during the pandemic as it sought to boost its tourism and economy. China is one of the last major countries to reopen its borders to tourists. The announcement on Tuesday came after it declared a decisive victory over COVID-19 in February. All types of visas will resume from Wednesday. Visa-free entry also will resume at destinations such as Hainan Island as well as for cruise ships entering Shanghai that had no visa requirement before COVID-19. Visa-free entry will resume for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macao to enter Guangdong in southern China, and foreigners holding visas issued before March 28, 2020, that are still valid will be allowed to enter China. The notice didn't specify whether vaccination certificates or negative COVID-19 tests would be required. The move would further facilitate the exchange of Chinese and foreign personnel, according to the notice posted on

E-immigration process for international fliers soon, says Scindia

Airports across the world have started using biometrics to create automated lanes for immigration clearance at airports

Indian passport 85th most powerful in the world, slips two spots from 2022

Henley Passport Index 2023: Japan topped the ranking followed by South Korea and Singapore

Experts for stricter punishment to tackle unruly behaviour on flights

Air India's handling of an incident in which an inebriated male flier allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger suggests an urgent need for stricter rules to deal with unruly passengers, according to legal and aviation experts. Instances of inappropriate conduct on flights have gone up in the recent past because airlines try to cover up such incidents due to their commercial interests, the experts said. According to police, the male passenger, Shankar Mishra, allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger in her 70s in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year. Delhi Police registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India and arrested him from Bengaluru on Saturday. To prevent such incidents in future, the experts said, the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) of 2017 for handling of unruly passengers should be amended. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) framed the rules in 2017 after

XBB prevalent Covid variant in international travellers, show India's tests

Omicron variant blamed for 40% of all cases being reported in the US

China to end quarantines for inbound travellers as 'Covid Zero' dismantled

People arriving in China will only be required to obtain negative Covid test results within 48 hours of departure, according to a statement from the National Health Commission Monday

Weather disruption forces IndiGo passengers to wait eight hours in Delhi

Delay causes some to miss connecting flights; DIAL sources said zero cancellations or diversions from airport on Tuesday

India boosts facilities at Delhi airport to ease year-end travel congestion

Like in other countries, air travel in India has picked up as Covid-19 restrictions have eased

Labour pain for travel sector: Agencies poaching staff to beat shortage

Smaller outfits losing customers, many firms outsourcing to larger players to stay afloat

Clipped wings: Post-Covid pandemic recovery in air travel stalls

The biggest decline has been in foreign tourist arrivals

Going abroad? Declare pre-existing disease even when buying travel policy

Take country, trip duration, and your age into account when deciding on the sum insured

Hotels, tour operators shed Covid baggage as Diwali promises to sparkle

Group tours at 65-70% of pre-pandemic levels; Southeast Asia, Egypt, and Turkey seeing maximum demand

Alliance Air to hold Board meeting on Sept 16 to restore pilots' salaries

During the peak of the Covid pandemic, Indian carriers had cut the salaries of their employees to reduce losses. This year, while most of them have restored the salaries, a few are yet to do so

Govt employees can now avail air travel on LTC, Centre issues notice

The central government has issued new guidelines for the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) availed by employees, which will now include air tickets

Centre asks states to step up surveillance to curb Covid-19 spread

States have been asked to screen 2 per cent of international travellers randomly with RT-PCR tests and send all positive samples for genomic sequencing

Norms for Covid vaccination precaution dose relaxed for overseas travellers

The Union Health Ministry's decision to relax the norms about the precaution dose for overseas travellers was based on recommendations by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation

Myanmar reopens to tourists after 2 years; to issue e-visas from May 15

The move came after the country's resumption of international commercial flight operations on April 17 and the reopening of its borders to international travellers

Squeezing out a great holiday deal as international travel opens up

With foreign travel set to pick up, here's how you can get the best deals for your trip, along with advice on the destinations you could to head to

No more 7-day home quarantine for foreign travellers as govt eases rules

Countries 'at-risk' tag goes, along with it the mandatory sample testing

'Isolation' not mandatory for foreign arrivals testing Covid positive

Travellers arriving in India who will test positive for Covid-19 shall be treated/isolated as per the laid down standard protocol and will not mandatorily be managed at an isolation facility