Evacuation ops for stranded Indians delayed by a day

The government’s plan to operate special Air India (AI) and Air India Express (AIE) flights to evacuate thousands of Indians stranded overseas has been delayed by

The government’s plan to operate special Air India (AI) and Air India Express (AIE) flights to evacuate thousands of Indians stranded overseas has been delayed by a day owing to due procedures. The flights were to commence operations from Thursday, but they will now start from Friday.

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The aviation ministry had on Tuesday announced that AI would be operating 64 special flights between May 7 and May 13 to fly back Indians stranded in 12 countries. However, the process has been delayed by a day after certain countries made it mandatory for the operating crew to have health certificates showing that they have not contracted Covid-19.

“Air India has adhered to the guidelines issued on Tuesday which makes it mandatory for the cockpit/cabin crew to undergo Covid-19 test as required by the destination countries,” said a senior Air India official.

“We wouldn’t like to make any comment on this as all details regarding this are being disseminated by appropriate authorities in the Ministries concerned,” said the airline spokesperson.

According to the revised schedule, sources said, Air India’s first flight AI 380, a dreamliner B787, will take off for Singapore at 11.15pm from Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on Thursday. The same flight will depart from Singapore at 6am (IST) on Friday and will land in Delhi at around 11.35am.

The first flight from Mumbai will take off from the city as AI 131 for London at 6.30am on Friday and will return to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) the next day at around 1.30am.

Another aircraft, an Airbus A320Neo, will take off as AI 921 on Friday for Riyadh at 9am from CSMIA and will land back in Kozhikode with stranded Indians as flight AI 922 at 8.30pm. This A320Neo from Kozhikode will then depart for Mumbai as AI 1574 on the same day and is expected to return to CSMIA at 11pm.

The airline will also send its B777LR aircraft to San Francisco as AI 173 at 3.30am From IGI on Friday. This aircraft will be returning as AI 174 on Saturday and land at Mumbai’s CSMIA at around 6am.

Flights taking off on Saturday also include; A320 aircraft as AI 1372 from Chennai to Kuala Lumpur at 8.30am and return from Kuala Lumpur as AI 1373 to Trichy at around 5.30pm. Same aircraft will be operating as AI 1556 from Trichy at 6.30pm to land Chennai at around 7.30pm.