Air India Express’s Vande Bharat Mission Phase III repatriation flights to evacuate stranded Non-Resident Indians from West Asia has been extended till June 30 with another 42 flights reaching the four airports of the State in the next seven days.
With this, the repatriation flights operated by the AIE from West Asia and South East Asian countries in the Phase III that commenced on June 9 will touch 176. The repatriation flights of AIE, which was scheduled to end on June 23, will conclude with IX 1374 flight from Doha to Kozhikode on June 30.
Kerala is the biggest beneficiary of Vande Bharat Mission repatriation flights and charters to evacuate the stranded Non Resident Indians as 70,209 had so far been evacuated.
Delhi is behind with 56,115 passengers, Maharashtra is in the third place among the destination states with 20,469 passengers followed by Tamil Nadu (20,268), Telangana (11,482) and Karnataka (6,558). Of the 70,209 who had reached Kerala, 29,839 came in the flights of the mission and 40,370 in the charters.
Evacuation status shows 23,790 had arrived from United Arab Emirates, which includes 15,540 from Dubai, 8,068 from Abu Dhabi and 182 from Sharjah. As many as 10,240 had come from U.S, 8,276 from Saudi Arabia, 7,386 from Qatar, 7,073 from Oman, 6,092 from U.K., 4,566 from Singapore and 4,387 from Kuwait in the repatriation flights.
Of the 43 flights announced in the extended Phase III, 42 flights are to the State. Delhi has got the remaining one flight (IX 1172) from Bahrain on June 24. Thiruvananthapuram international airport has got 11 flights, Cochin 14, Kozhikode 13 and Kannur four flights during the June 24 to June 30 period from West Asia.
AIE will be operating six repatriation flights daily in the last leg of the mission from June 24 to 30. However, there are no repatriation flights from the South East Asian countries of Singapore and Malaysia to the airports in the State in the next seven days. “The airline will be deploying over 20 Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft for the extended operations and the Phase III mission is going on smoothly,” airline sources told The Hindu. The phase III began in the backdrop of nine crew members who handled flights to Kerala testing positive for COVID-19 despite following all protocols. AIE had operated 22 flights in the Phase I, 38 in Phase II and 95 in the Phase II plus of Vande Bharat Mission that ended on June 4.
In addition to the AIE flights, Air India is operating around 300 flights to Europe, Australia, Canada, the USA, the UK and Africa between June 10 and July 1 during the third phase.