Flight plan by MEA: India to operate 64 flights to bring back citizens stranded abroad

Amid the coronavirus pandemic that led to lockdown in various countries, India is planning to operate over 60 special flights in a week to bring back thousands of its citizens stranded across the world. The operations will start from May 7,  in phased manner.

According to the flight plan of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), 64 flights will be sent to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Malaysia, the UK, Singapore, Bangladesh, the Philippines and the US to repatriate over 14,800 stranded Indians. These special flights would be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express.

The maximum number of flights(15) will be sent from Kerala, 11 each for Delhi-NCR and Tamil Nadu, seven for Maharashtra and Telangana, five for Gujarat, three each for Jammu and Kashmir and Karnataka and one each for Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.

The routes that are being considered include Manila-Chennai, Chicago-Delhi-Hyderabad, New York-Delhi-Hyderabad, Kuwait-Kozhikode and San Francisco-Delhi-Bengaluru. Approximately, 2000 people from abroad will fly back to India daily.

The Indian Consulate in Dubai, in a statement, on Monday announced that “the cost of the tickets and other conditions for travel including quarantine requirements after reaching India, and health requirements to board the flight will be conveyed in due course and will have to be accepted by each passenger.”

Air tickets will only be issued to those on the passenger lists prepared by the Embassy or Consulate, the statement said.

Earlier, in a presentation by MEA,, it was estimated that of the 1 crore people who are currently abroad on an Indian passport, about 1,92,000 in dire need may be brought back in socially-distanced flights, provided they have proof of being Covid-19 negative.

The statement further said that the passengers will be medically screened before taking the flight. Only asymptomatic passengers will be allowed to travel. During the journey, all passengers will have to follow protocols, such as the Health protocol, issued by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

India has been under a lockdown since March 25 to curb the spread of the coronavirus and it will continue till May 17. All commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this period.