With no air bubble between India & S. Korea, travellers shelling out many times the normal fare

The Indian government still doesn’t have an air transport bubble arrangement with South Korea even after 23 months into the Covid-19 pandemic. This has hindered most Indians working in South Korea from travelling back home to visit their families. Direct flights between the two countries were suspended in March 2020.

There are close to 14,000 Indians working and studying in the South-East Asian country, many of whom cannot afford the travel back home without the air bubble arrangement. Earlier, travelers paid between Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 for a round trip without layover to India, but now they are forced to pay between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.2 lakh for a round trip with a layover of sometimes 11 hours. This means that a couple with one child taking a round trip to India has to spend around Rs 3.5-5 lakhs.

Transport bubbles are temporary arrangements between two countries aimed at restarting commercial passenger services because regular international flights have been suspended as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the East Asian and South-East Asian countries, India has transport bubble arrangements with only Singapore and Japan.

India has such arrangements with 40 countries including Australia, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Canada, Ethopia, Finland, France, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Maldives, Russia, Netherlands, Nigeria, UK, USA, UAE, Tanzania, Switzerland and Sri Lanka.

Most of the passengers are left with only two options -- booking seats on the chartered flights by Asiana, which are extremely expensive. These always stand a chance of cancellation because of the sheer number of passengers who have booked the flight, in addition to restrictions for Indians, if they want to board this flight from India. The second option is to fly Emirates or Qatar Airways transiting via Dubai or Doha with an extremely long layover period.

PhD student Rachel (name changed to protect privacy), had to spend Rs 1 lakh with a layover to travel to one of the southern states in the country. Her flight got cancelled and as a result she had to re-book her tickets once she was in India. “I had to pay Rs 70k for my return flight, when earlier I could pay less than Rs 50k for a return trip,” said Rachel.

Mounrik, who has just finished his PhD in Korea, has not been back to the country for almost two years now. “I have just gotten a job here and I can’t afford the tickets. The indirect flights are too expensive on my PhD stipend only. I have not met my wife for more than two years. Unless the normal flight operations start, I can’t go back home,” said a worried Mounrik.

It is mostly the students and new employees who are feeling the pinch. Another student pursuing his PhD from Chonnam National University in Korea, Ajay Kumar, hasn’t come home since 2019 because of the soaring airfare and travel restrictions. These are not isolated cases, but a common issue now facing Indians in South Korea.

Their plight was highlighted by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Twitter in January 2022 that Indians living in South Korea were protesting the absence of an air bubble. Responding to this, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia revealed that the Indian government had proposed an air bubble to the South Korean government in July 2021, but they have not responded to the request.

The Indian embassy in Korea organised a video conference for the community on February 11, 2022, where they were told that there were issues pending from both the countries as a result of which such an arrangement has not materialised. The Embassy blamed the multiple Covid-19 waves in both the countries too for the delay.

In an attempt to raise the voices of the community in Korea, the Indian Overseas Congress-South Korea initiated two petitions in January 2022. The first one was addressed to the ministry of civil aviation of India and the Indian Embassy in South Korea and the second one was to Korean President’s Blue House highlighting the hardships of Indian immigrants in South Korea.

“We have approached the Indian Embassy several times and have spoken to senior embassy officials, but there has been no progress on this issue. The Embassy Officials said they have spoken to the authorities, but they gave us no timeline for the initiation of the air transport bubble,” added Kislay Kumar, president of the Indian Overseas Congress-South Korea.

National Herald sent questions to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Korean Embassy in India, but got no responses from both. This article will be updated if and when they respond.