India adds destinations for repatriation flights from UAE

India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a list of Air India’s repatriation flights for its citizens in the Gulf who wish to return home.

As part of Phase V of the Vande Bharat Mission, the Ministry has released a limited schedule for these flights for August 1-6.

In the UAE, these flights will pick up Indians from Sharjah and also bring back passengers of certain categories from India to Sharjah.

In the Gulf region, the repatriation will cover airports in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar (Doha), in addition to Sharjah.

Domestic flights announced as part of the Phase V repatriation schedule will not accommodate domestic passengers as they are meant for international passengers to be connected to destinations within India.

“More than 814K stranded Indians have returned through various means under VBM [Vande Bharat Mission] since 6 May 2020, out of which more than 270K returned on flights from 53 countries. Now we prepare to dovetail Phase-4 of VBM into Phase-5 from 1st August 2020 and bring back more Indian citizens,” the Minister of Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, tweeted.

Dubai carrier Emirates also arranged special repatriation flights to Bengaluru, Delhi, Kochi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram in India between July 12-26 to assist stranded Indians get home and enable UAE residents currently in India to return.

Read: Dubai’s Emirates to operate repatriation flights to India

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways also operated a series of special flights from UAE to six Indian cities from July 15-26, namely Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi.

Read more: Etihad, Air Arabia announce special flights from UAE to India