Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that Bilateral Air Bubbles will be the way to resume international travel amid the Covid-19 pandemic with certain conditions.<br />''<br />''Briefing media in New Delhi, Mr Puri said that the government's negotiations with three countries are at an advanced stage for the purpose under Bilateral air bubble mechanism. He informed that Air France will operate 28 flights from 18th  July to 1st of August between Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and  Paris. He said, in case of the United States,  there is an agreement with United Airlines to operate 18 flights between India and US between 17th to 31st July but this is an interim one. He said, they have also received  a request from Germany and  an agreement with Lufthansa is almost done.<br />''<br />''On the biggest evacuation exercise Vande Bharat Mission, Mr Puri said, the fourth phase is going on. He said, under first phase of the mission from 7th May to 13th May, 12 thousand 700  Indians stranded abroad due to COVID-19 pandemic were repatriated. He said, now double of this number of passengers are being brought back per day. He said, till 15th of this month over 6 lakh 87 thousand passengers have been brought under the mission.<br />''<br />''Civil Aviation Secretary  Pradeep Kharola said, taking the sheer number of passengers and the number of countries covered, Vande Bharat  Mission is the biggest evacuation exercise by any civil airline in the world. He said, this will pave way for operation of Air Bubbles between different countries.<br />''<br />''Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal said that till 13th of this month as part of the Mission for Repatriation Flights for Stranded Indians, Air India group has operated 1,103 flights and brought back over two lakh  Indians and also helped repatriate over 85 thousand individuals.<br />''<br />''On resumption of domestic flight operations, the Minister said, the operation began on 25th May and on the first day 30 thousand passengers flew. He said, the number is increasing.<br />''<span style="color: #222222;"><br />'' Besides , a presentation on Drone operations was also made during the briefing. The Civil Aviation Ministry official said that Drones will play a key role under the Atmanirbhar Bharat  Abhiyan and the government is working on the challenges.</span><br />