MUMBAI: The postal department has halted the delivery of mail and parcels to the USA owing to flight disruptions caused by the new Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus.
The Department of Posts headquartered in New Delhi dispatched a circular on December 8 to all postal circles nationwide, urging them to publicise the decision.
“In view of the present disruptions in air connectivity for USA, it has been decided to withhold the booking/ collection of all types of mails destined to USA with immediate effect and further orders. Circles shall bring this to the notice of all customers as well as display it for public information,” the notification read.
Meanwhile clients who send cargo and mail to the US on a regular basis are in a quandary. The circulation department of a community magazine issued an email to subscribers worldwide, saying its consignment of year-end diaries had been rejected at a city post office, and was therefore indefinitely delayed.
Currently, international flights are operated under air bubble agreements that India has signed with over 28 countries, including the USA.
In November, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had announced the resumption of regular scheduled flights from December 15. With that airlines would have been able to add more flights and go back to the pre-Covid schedule. But with fresh concerns over the Omicron variant, in early December, India postponed the resumption of scheduled international flights till January 2022 end. The move has meant continued curtailed operations to all countries, including the US.
For instance, in October about 20,400 international flights were operated to and from airports in India, while pre-Covid in October 2019, the number was 38,600.
However demand for flights to the US is high, and Air India, the only Indian carrier that flies to the US, announced additional flights from December 21. Among them are additional flights between Delhi and San Francisco and Delhi and Chicago.