500 International Flights From 22 Nations Repatriated 11.23 Lakh Indians In Phase 5: MEA On Vande Bharat Mission

MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava in his weekly briefing said that in the ongoing Phase 5 of the Vande Bharat Mission, Air India operated around 500 international flights and 130 domestic so far from 22 different nations and covering 23 airports across India.

Air India

Air India has been doing yeoman service to the nation over the past 3-odd months amid the testing Covid-19 pandemic by flying back over a million stranded Indians abroad under the External Affairs Ministry's flagship Vande Bharat Mission and the national carrier is relentless in its pursuit to get back more Indians as it has chartered a road map for the sixth phase of the mission. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in its weekly updates on the fifth phase of Vande Bharat mission said on Thursday that as many as 11,23,000 Indians stranded abroad have been repatriated by different flight modes under Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) till August 19. The sixth phase of the Vande Bharat mission will get underway from September 1st and will continue till October 23rd. Some of the destinations covered in phase 6 will include destinations such Vancouver,  Toronto, London, Shanghai, Chicago etc MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava in his weekly briefing said that in the ongoing Phase 5 of the Vande Bharat Mission, Air India operated around 500 international flights and 130 domestic so far from 22 different nations and covering 23 airports across India. "As of 19 August 2020, 11.23 lakh Indians stranded abroad have been repatriated by different modes under VBM. In the ongoing Phase, 5 of VBM around 500 international flights and 130 domestic feeders have been operated so far from 22 different countries and reaching 23 airports across India. Around 375 more international flights are scheduled to be operated by the end of August 2020," Srivastava said. The spokesperson said that based on a continuous assessment of demand received from Indian missions in the middle east, South East Asian nations, Air India has added flights for repatriation of stranded Indians from Kuwait, Maldives, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Australia, UK and Canada. On the bilateral air bubbles, arrangements with the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, UAE, Qatar, and the Maldives are functioning well. "You would have seen the announcement by Minister of Civil Aviation earlier this week that negotiations on air travel arrangements with 18 more countries viz. Australia, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Bahrain, Israel, Kenya, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are ongoing. This will benefit stranded Indians and nationals of these countries," he said.