NEW DELHI: About 3.2 lakh people have flown in and out of India — since the lockdown has been imposed — on Vande Bharat Mission (VBM) flights and special charters operated by by foreign airlines. The government has decided to add more flights to Gulf countries, Singapore, Malaysia and Africa to bring back more Indians stranded there.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in a tweet on Monday said: “In addition to facilitating VBM, DGCA granted permission to about 870 chartered flights transporting about 2 lakh passengers, both inbound and outbound. Several airlines helped in the humanitarian mission of taking stranded people to their destinations. Major airlines including Qatar Airways (81 flights); KLM Dutch (68); Kuwait Air (41); British Airways (39); FlyDubai (38); Air France (32); Jazeera (30); Air Arabia (20); Gulf Air (19); Sri Lankan (19); Biman Bangladesh (15); Korean Air (14); Delta (13); Saudia (13) and Air Nippon (12) took part in the operations. Additionally, airlines like Air New Zealand (12); Thai Air Asia (11); United (11); Iraqi Airways (11); Oman Air (10); Ural Airlines (9); Lufthansa (8); Somon Air (8); Condour (8); Emirates (5); Etihad (5); Aeroflot (4) and Virgin Atlantic (4) also took part in the chartered operations.”
