Delhi Airport handles over 50 evacuation flights in past 14 days; remains operation despite lockdown

The AAI-GMR group joint venture-run Delhi Airport on Tuesday said it has handled over 50 evacuation flights, transporting over 10,000 stranded foreign nationals to their respective countries, till date since the implementation of 21-days lockdown.

Since the suspension of all commercial passenger aircraft operations, Delhi Airport has been operational 24x7 despite suspension of commercial operations, due to the 21-day lockdown following the coronavirus outbreak, said Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) CEO, Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said.

In the last 14 days, the airport has remained functional to handle cargo and evacuation flights, operated by countries like Japan, Norway, Germany, Afghanistan, Poland, Russia and France to repatriate their nationals stranded in India due to lockdown, DIAL said.

At present, Delhi Airport is handling cargo and evacuation flights, operated by various countries. We have handled around 56 evacuation flights and helped over 10,600 stranded foreign nationals in reaching their homes in the last 14 days since the lockdown has come into force," he stated.

The biggest aircraft used for evacuation was an Airbus 380, operated by Lufthansa, which flew around 500 German nationals to Frankfurt, the airport operator said, adding that all these flights were operated after obtaining mandatory regulatory clearances.