Vande Bharat Phase 3: Air India to operate five flights from London to bring home around 1,200 nationals

Jun 03,2020

Air India will operate five flights in the third phase of Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate almost 1,200 Indians nationals stranded in the United Kingdom between June 18 to June 23.

The Indian Embassy in the UK said that tickets will not be booked for technical halts which included Delhi (on June 18 and 20), and Mumbai (on June 21).

More than 243 passengers will not be allowed to travel in a single flight, the embassy said.

Air India will operate 70 flights in the third phase of Mission Vande Bharat to evacuate Indians stranded in the US and Canada between June 11 to June 30, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

Puri wrote on Twitter, "More flights being added to Mission Vande Bharat to enable stranded and distressed Indians to return home. Air India will operate 70 flights to destinations in USA and Canada under Phase 3 of the Mission from 11-30 June 2020."

Air India brought 3,891 people from Dubai, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Bahrain, Salalah, Moscow, Kiev, Madrid, Tokyo, Dhaka, Bishkek, Almaty, Riyadh and Dammam on June 1.

More than 50,000 stranded Indians have been evacuated under the Vande Bharat Mission. The government plans to evacuate another 100,000 by June 13, the minister said.

More than 57,000 citizens have returned to India on flights being operated under Mission Vande Bharat since May 6.

Vande Bharat Mission was launched on May 7. In the first phase of the mission from May 7 to 15, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express operated 64 flights to bring back around 15,000 people from 12 countries.