British Airways special flight carrying stranded nationals to depart from Ahmedabad today

A British Airways relief flight carrying stranded British nationals will depart from the Ahmedabad airport today, airport authorities said on Monday.

Manoj Gangal, Director of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport (SVPI) or Ahmedabad airport exclusively told ANI that three relief flights of British Airways will be facilitated for evacuating British nationals who have been standard in Gujarat due to the ongoing lockdown.

"The flights will be operated with B747, B777 or B787 types of aircraft. One flight each will operate on 13th, 15th and 17th of April with flight numbers BA9113C, BA9117C and BA9117C respectively. It is estimated that approximately 300 passengers will board each aircraft from Ahmedabad," Gangal said.

The airport director further said that special care will be taken for the facilitation of passengers and social distancing measures in line with directives of the Government of India.

"We are in constant touch with the British High Commission to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the passengers," Gangal told ANI.

All the agencies working at the airport, including the Health Department, customs and immigration, ATC and terminal management, have extended full cooperation and support for smooth flight operations, he said.

Last Friday, the British government announced the operation of 12 additional chartered flights to evacuate its nationals who are stranded in India amid travel restrictions owing to the coronavirus crisis.

According to the UK High Commission, seven chartered flights are already in the process of evacuating British nationals from Goa, Amritsar, Mumbai and New Delhi.

Around 19 flights will evacuate in total 5000 people from India, the UK High Commission said in a statement.

The first charter flight from India reached London Stanstead on Thursday morning with 317 British nationals on board from Goa.

The British Government had announced a worldwide partnership between the UK Government and airlines to repatriate nationals stranded due to the unprecedented international travel and domestic restrictions in place as a result of coronavirus outbreak.

India had imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown on March 24 in a bid to combat the spread of coronavirus. It also banned all international passenger flight operations.