EXCLUSIVE: Two Japanese airliners JAL, ANA get special permission to fly Japanese nationals from Delhi to Tokyo
One Way Ticket: JAL and ANA are operating flights from Delhi, not from other Indian cities to Narita, Haneda for Japanese nationals only. There is no return flight as India has closed its borders in view of global COVID-19 outbreak.
NEW DELHI: Hundreds of Japanese nationals have started flying out of India to Tokyo on daily basis as Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) get special permission from Indian aviation authorities to operate their flights from New Delhi to Narita and Haneda airports respectively.
Japanese nationals most of whom are staying in India on work visas in various towns like New Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, and other parts of the country, want to leave India for two reasons.
One, India is experiencing a surge in the number of Coronavirus COVID-19 positive cases day by day, though on a small but consistent pace. Second, all Japanese companies have closed down their offices and factories for the 21-day lockdown period, and many of their executives and engineers want to go back to their country of origin.
Japan Airlines has been operating one flight every day with a seating capacity of about 250 persons from Delhi to Narita since March 24. It few from Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, New Delhi on March 24, 25, 27 and 28.
JAL flights will continue to fly till April 4 on March 29, 30, 31, 31, and April 1, 2, 3, 4.
Also read: Now, Koreans also want special flights between India and South Korea, many want to go back
Japan’s state airliner ANA started its flights from Monday, March 30 to go on till April 8. Its flights’ schedule includes flights on March 30, April 1, 3, 5, and 8. It will operate one flight daily to Haneda airport.
However, the Indian aviation authorities have granted special permission to these Japanese airliners to fly Japanese nationals from New Delhi airport only, not from airports from other cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, etc where there are about 1000 Japanese nationals living in each city. And due to travel restrictions, the Japanese nationals cannot reach Delhi airport either by air or road to catch flights from IGI Airport.
The Japanese nationals living in Delhi and NCR towns like Gurugram and Noida can travel to IGI airport to board these flights as the Embassy of Japan has made necessary arrangements for their trouble-free commute from their home to Delhi airport even during the lockdown period of 21 days up to April 14.
Delhi and NCR towns have about 6,000 Japanese nationals staying and other cities like most of them are on work visas. And cities like Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, etc have about 1000 Japanese nationals each.
According to sources, there is a reasonable number of Japanese wanting to go back to Japan but the number of seats available on each flight is not more than 250 daily.
Also, the companies that employ them are worried a lot as to what if the lockdown period ends on April 14, and the Japanese want to come back to India. For now, India has closed its boundaries for incoming flights.
Chinese national has already experienced this problem in India. As the majority of Chinese staying in India on work visas had left for their country in early January to participate in New Year festivities but got stuck there as India had closed borders for them on February 5 because of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Of the 20,000 Chinese staying in India, hardly 2000 are left here.
