Air India's second evacuation flight with 250 Indians from Ukraine lands in Delhi
Air India's third evacuation flight, AI1940, which will depart from Hungarian capital Budapest, is also scheduled to return with evacuees to Delhi on Sunday.
The second evacuation flight of Air India, carrying 250 Indian nationals stranded in Ukraine, landed at the Delhi airport during the wee hours of Sunday. The flight took off from Romanian capital Bucharest on Saturday evening as India grappled to bring home its stranded citizens from Ukraine through the land borders of neighbouring countries in the face of Russian invasion.
The flight, AI1942, landed at the Delhi airport around 2.45am on Sunday, news agency PTI quoted officials as saying.
Hours earlier, India had brought back the first batch of 219 Indian nationals from the East European country via Romania. The third evacuation flight (AI1940), scheduled to depart from Hungarian capital Budapest, is expected to return with evacuees to Delhi on Sunday, according to officials.
The Ukrainian airspace has been closed for civil aircraft operations since February 24 morning when the Russian military offensive began. Therefore, the Indian evacuation flights are operating out of Bucharest and Budapest.
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Indian nationals who reached the Ukraine-Romania border and Ukraine-Hungary border have been taken to Bucharest and Budapest, respectively, by road with the assistance of Indian government officials so that they can be evacuated in these Air India flights, the officials said.
The government is not charging the rescued passengers for the evacuation flights, they said.
(With agency inputs)
