Saudi company operates chartered flights to send home 1,600 Indians

KOCHI: In one of the largest Covid-19-related repatriations from the Gulf by a private employer, a Saudi Arabia-based company has begun operating chartered flights to send home over 1,600 of its Indian employees.
In a statement here, Expertise Contracting Company said six of the flights have already reached Chennai and Hyderabad on June 5, Ahmedabad and Delhi on June 6 and Mangaluru and Chennai on June 7.
The operations would conclude on June 11, with altogether nine flights to India.
The flights, chartered from Gulf Air and being operated from the city of Dammam in Saudi Arabia, also include the ones covering three other neighbouring countries, the statement said.
A company official told PTI that a total of 2,000 employees from various countries in the Indian subcontinent are being repatriated out of which Indians are 1,665.
He said 12 Chartered flights have been engaged to carry out the repatriation exercise to the Indian subcontinent.
Director of Expertise Contracting Company, K S Shaikh said the 20-year-old Expertise group, one of the largest conglomerates in the GCC operating in petrochemical and heavy equipment sectors, has got more than 10,000 employees and their family members in the Gulf, mainly in Jubail, one of the largest industrial cities.
Of these, the company has chosen over 2,000 employees for the covid-related repatriations considering various emergencies, he said.