International Flights Latest News: A day after getting the approval to operate flights to the US, private budget airlines SpiceJet has been designated as an “Indian scheduled carrier” to operate flight services to the United Kingdom, the no-frills carrier stated on Friday.

“In continuation of our communication dated July 23, 2020, informing designation for USA operations, we would like to further inform you that in terms of the Air services agreement between the Government of India and the Government of the United Kingdom, SpiceJet has been designated as Indian scheduled carrier to operate on agreed services between India and the UK,” the airline informed the stock exchanges today.

Yesterday, Gurugram-based SpiceJet airlines announced flight operations on agreed services between the United States and India. The decision was taken based on the US-India the Air Services Agreement to help the airline chalk out its international expansion in a calibrated manner.

SpiceJet on Thursday said it has been designated as the ‘Indian scheduled carrier’ to operate flights to the US under the air bubble agreement between the two countries.

Also, it’s the first Indian budget carrier to operate services to the United States. At present, only Aie India is operating flights on India-US routes, through the Vande-Bharat-Mission to repatriate Indian citizens.

Currently, government-run Air India is the only domestic airline flying between India and the UK.

The government had banned international passenger flight operations on March 25, and since then only flights under the Civil Aviation Ministry’s Vande Bharat Mission have been allowed to operate.

Though international passenger flights are still banned till July 31, the government has created ‘air bubbles’ with some countries, including the United States, Germany, and UAE, to fly some designated flights to facilitate passengers. International flights between India and the US started on July 17.

With SpiceJet’s latest announcement on international flights, the company’s shares traded as high as Rs 49.90, up by over 5% in the Thursday opening bell.

Mean-while, India has seen its biggest daily spurt in the number of coronavirus cases, with 49,310 new infections being reported in a span of 24 hours. The total now stands at 1,290,284.

Tamil Nadu recorded its biggest single-day spike of 6,472 which took its tally to 192,964. Maharashtra’s Covid-19 tally has risen to 347,502. with 9,895 fresh cases on Thursday. For a second straight day, Karnataka clocked its highest single-day spike of more than 5,000 cases in 24 hours, taking its tally beyond 80,000. India’s death toll has now crossed the 30,000-mark, with 30,645 fatalities reported so far.