Amid coronavirus scare, Air India to operate 18 charter flights to foreign destinations

Air India has mobilised all its available resources to operate some charter flights to carry the stranded foreigners to their respective countries as well as to bring critical medical cargo from Shanghai.

These flights are being operated adhering to all safety protocol laid down by DGCA, read a statement from Air India.

Air India is scheduled to operate 18 charter flights to fly back German, French, Irish and Canadian nationals stranded in India during the lockdown as requested by the embassies.

While people from Germany and France will be flown to Frankfurt and Paris, the other two nationalities will be taken to London Heathrow from where Canada and Ireland would be making further travel arrangements.

These chartered flights started from March 31 with German nationals flying to Frankfurt. Earlier, Air India had ferried Israeli nationals to Tel Aviv as well in a chartered flight, the statement said.

On Saturday, flights to London and Paris are being operated carrying foreigners. A charter cargo flight was also operated from Delhi to Shanghai on Saturday to fly in vital medical cargo from China to India.

Air India is also scheduled to operate some more cargo flights between Delhi and Shanghai till April 9. These flights will bring critical medical equipment to India.

As part of Mission Lifeline UDAN scheme of the government, Air India and Alliance Air have operated 79 charter flights to ferry medical equipment and other items essential to fight the corona pandemic from March 26 to April 3.

The flights, being operated regularly between the metro hubs - Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai - to the remote spoke destinations of the Northeast and other farflung areas of the country, are reaching medical equipment and other essential items, the statement added.