E-Paper
Air India to operate special flights to London for foreigners stranded in India
The national carrier will use Boeing 777 aircraft for these rescue flights.
Air India (AI) will operate charter rescue flights from Delhi and Mumbai to London between April 4 and 7 to fly back foreigners, who got stranded in India after the 21-day nationwide lockdown started on Mach 25 to contain the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.
The national carrier will use Boeing 777 aircraft for these rescue flights.
Delhi to London flights will operate as AI 161 and will take off from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) at 2 am between April 4 and 7 and arrive in Delhi as AI 162.
However, AI’s flights from Mumbai to London will operate only on April 5 and 7 as AI 131 (Mumbai- London) and AI 130 (London- Mumbai).
The carrier has not released information on the number of passengers who will be flown to London. The stranded passengers do not need to pay any air fare but will have to arrange their journey from London onwards.
The aircraft will return as ferry flights --- without any passenger --- on their way back to Delhi and Mumbai.
Earlier, AI operated rescue flights to Israel, Wuhan, China and Frankfurt, Germany to bring back passengers stranded in these countries due to Covid-19 outbreak.
Usually, the airline flies with two sets of crew members during such rescue flights.
