Evacuation of Foreigners begins from India amidst ban on Intl flights during lockdown
Since March 24, thousands of foreigners from countries like Japan, Germany, Russia, and France have flown out using their national carriers as well as Air India flights. The USA too is about to send its aircraft soon for its citizens.
NEW DELHI: As the number of Coronavirus positive cases rises, albeit slowly, in India that is under lockdown to check the spread of Coronavirus outbreak, many countries have started evacuating their stranded nationals from here.
Thousands of foreigners from countries like Japan, Germany, Russia, and France have already left for their countries of origin using their respective national carriers as well as Air India. The USA is all set to send its fleet of aircraft for its citizens. Air India is going to operate special flights to evacuate UK citizens on April 5 and 7.
All these flights, however, are one-way flights as returning aircraft are not allowed to board passengers and come back empty to evacuate stranded foreigners from India. Therefore the Indian citizens stranded in those countries will not bale to board these returning flights to come back to India.
Also read: Two Japanese airliners JAL, ANA get special permission to fly Japanese nationals from Delhi to Tokyo
India’s national carrier Air India has operated a number of one-way flights to Frankfurt to evacuate Germans from India. Air India has also signed a contract with other countries like Canada, France, and Ireland for flying their nationals from India to their countries in days to come.
Since March 24, a number of international flights have been operating from various parts of India with the special permission of Indian aviation authorities. The Indian government, though, had clamped a complete ban on the operation of domestic and international passenger flights.
Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the aviation regulator of India has permitted Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) to operate one flight daily since March 24 and March 30 respectively for Narita and Haneda airports in Tokyo from New Delhi.
Thousands of Japanese staying in Delhi and NCR towns like Gurugram and Noida have left for their countries
On March 31; Air India flew five wide-body aircraft to France, and it also operated selective flights on April 1 and 2 from Mumbai and Delhi airports.
Since March 31, Air India operated nine charter flights for the repatriation of about 1000 German citizens stranded in India.
Last week, about 2000 foreigners from the UK, Russia, and Europe who were holidaying in Goa and got stranded after India announced a lockdown on March 24, were flown out on special flights by different countries.
Rest of the tourists from these countries are being evacuated this weekend in five special flights from their countries
