Mission Vande Bharat: 149 AI Flights Will Bring Back 15,000 Indians From 31 Nations; But Who Will Pay?

Air India will be launching the second phase of the Vande Bharat mission. Under this mission, the national carrier will be deporting 149 flights to 31 countries to bring back all the Indians stranded in those countries.

These repatriation flights will be launched for a period of 1 week, from May 16 to May 22.

Vande Bharat Mission Phase 2

Air India will be operating 149 repatriation flights to 31 countries between May 16 and May 22, in the second phase of the Vande Bharat mission to bring back the stranded Indians, in those countries.

The whole scope of this second phase will be much bigger than the first.

In this second phase, Air India will deport to countries, where it does have regular flights,  including Ukraine, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Nigeria.

The other countries will include the USA, the UAE, Canada, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Malaysia, Oman, , Australia, Qatar and Indonesia.

Other countries to where the national carrier would operate flights between May 16 and May 22 are Russia, Philippines, France, Singapore, Ireland, Kuwait, Japan, Germany and Italy.

Flights to destinations from the first phase such as UAE, USA, UK, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bangladesh will continue. The flights during the second phase will also be operated to Bahrain, Armenia, Thailand, Italy, Nepal, Belarus, Nigeria and Bangladesh, they mentioned.

There are about 1.4 crore Indians overseas, at present. According to official sources, more than 80000 Indians from all over the world have registered and completed all formalities for repatriation since last 5 days. So far, about 3 lakh Indians have registered from the Gulf region alone.

In the second phase, the government will focus on US, Canada, Europe and Gulf Asia, with 39 out of 149 flights scheduled only for Gulf countries.

Those who want to leave the country will also have to fulfill a specific criterion. Outbound-travellers also have to fulfil conditions imposed by destination countries.

Passengers will be paying for the journey.

Vande Bharat Mission                     

During the first phase of the Vande Bharat mission, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express are scheduled to operate total 64 flights between May 7 and May 14 to bring approximately 15,000 Indians from 12 countries on a payment basis.

In this first phase, 64 flights are used, including 42 by AI and 24 by AI Express operated under phase-I to 12 countries including USA, UK, Bangladesh, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Philippines, UAE and Malaysia to repatriate 14,800 Indians.

Under this phase, 6,037 Indians have been flown back to India in five days starting from May 7.