Starting May 7, India to Operate 64 Flights to Bring Back Citizens Stranded Abroad
The Central government will operate 64 flights, including seven to Mumbai, starting on Thursday, to Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Trichy, Kozhikode, Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad and Kochi to evacuate 14,770 Indian nationals, who have been stranded abroad because of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic that led to the suspension of all international flights to the country since March 22.
Altogether, seven flights carrying around 2,000 stranded Indian nationals will land at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) between Thursday and Sunday.
On Thursday, around 800 Indian nationals will arrive at the CSMIA by three separate flights from London, Singapore, and San Francisco. The final destination of the San Francisco flight, carrying around 300 Indian nationals, will be Hyderabad. Both the London and Singapore flights are expected to fly back around 250 Indian nationals each.
On Friday, another 500 Indians will arrive in Mumbai, including 250 each from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and New York.
On Saturday, a special flight from Chicago will arrive in Mumbai, carrying 300 Indian nationals. On the same day, around 200 and 250 Indian nationals will land from Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Manila (the Philippines), respectively.
On Sunday, the seventh-Mumbai bound will fly back 250 Indian nationals from London.
On Monday, the central government had announced that it would operate special flights to evacuate thousands of Indian nationals stranded abroad, and had been compiling their details on a priority basis.
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