Air India plans repatriation flights for Britons

Thursday 02nd April 2020 07:03 EDT
 
 

Senior Air India officials have confirmed that they are planning to conduct direct chartered flights operating between India and London. Scheduled between April 4 and April 7 to repatriate Britons stranded in India, these flights follow after the British Deputy High Commissioner in Kolkata successfully evacuated Britons stuck in Kolkata.

India has sealed its national and international borders after declaring a 21-day lockdown till April 14 with all commercial flights have being temporarily suspended.

Senior Air India officials said the national carrier will conduct four flights on Delhi-London route between April 4 and April 7. According to them, they will also be conducting flights on Mumbai-London route on April 5 and April 7. This follows after Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab unveiled a £75mn partnership plan last week to bring back Britons stranded across the world.

The acting British high commissioner to India, Jan Thompson, in a video said, “We will publish the exact timings and departure locations of flights from India on our travel advice and social media channels the moment they are confirmed.”

In the meantime, in a letter, the Executive Pilots Association, a body that represents senior long-haul pilots of the airline, says they have been given "flimsy" pieces of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that "tear and disintegrate easily on rescue flights". An Air India hostess who last operated a New York-Mumbai scheduled flight on March 20 has tested positive for coronavirus and is admitted to a local hospital in Mumbai.


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