Vande Bharat Mission day 3: Indians to be brought back from UK, B'desh, Gulf

On day three of the Vande Bharat mission, Indian nationals are set to be repatriated from Bangladesh, Malaysia, the UK, and Gulf nations. Several special flights from Air India and AI Express are scheduled to arrive at Hyderabad, Delhi, Kochi, Tiruchirapalli, and Mumbai.

New Delhi: National carrier Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express are on Saturday scheduled to operate special flights to repatriate Indians stuck in countries like Qatar, Oman, Malaysia, the UAE, and the UK.

On day three of the Vande Bharat mission, Air India will operate four flights to Dhaka, Singapore, Newark and Kuwait, while AI Express will operate repatriation flights to Doha, Muscat, Kuala Lampur, Sharjah and Kuwait.

According to the evacuation schedule prepared by Air India Express, the airline will today operate IX 475 from Kochi to Doha, IX 395 from Kochi to Kuwait, IX 443 Kochi to Muscat, IX 682 from Tiruchirappalli to Kuala Lumpur and flight IX 183 will operate from Delhi to Sharjah.

On return, the flights will land at the point of origin, except flight IX 184 (return flight for IX 183) which will first land at Lucknow by 20:50 (IST) and then at Delhi by 22:45 (IST).

Read:177 Indians from Bahrain land at Cochin airport

Similarly, Air India flight AI 1242 will operate from Dhaka to Delhi and arrive at 15:00 (IST). Flight AI 130 will operate from London to Mumbai, AI 174 from San Francisco to Mumbai and flight AI 988 will operate from Kuwait to Hyderabad and is expected to land at 21:00 (IST).

Meanwhile, Air India Express has also opened a booking window for the nationals of Qatar, Oman, Malaysia, UAE, and Kuwait, who are currently stuck in India due to the lockdown.

According to the airline, only permanent residents of the country can travel on the flight. Before booking, the passengers should check whether they fall under the approved category of passengers or not.

Air India officials said that in the first two days of the mission, very few passengers travelled from India in the repatriation flights.

Read:Two special flights from UAE with over 350 passengers reach Chennai

On day-2, special flights brought back over 1,000 stranded Indians from Singapore, Dhaka and the Gulf region, while a total of 264 passengers flew from Delhi to the US, the UK and Singapore.

Meanwhile, Air India Express has also opened the bookings for special flights to Doha and Singapore, for May 10 and May 12 respectively. The airline has also opened bookings for the nationals of Bahrain who have been stuck in India.

A total of 64 flights carrying approximately 15,000 returnees from 12 countries are expected to land at 14 airports across India from May 7 to 15 as part of the phase one of the mission.