Air India Launches 36 New Flights B/w US & India; 170 Flights For 17 Countries Under Vande Bharat Phase 4

The national carrier Air India will be sending 36 repatriation flights to the United States from India, from July 11 to July 19, 2020.

Air India made this announcement on July 5, Sunday to fetch stranded Indians from the U.S., to India.

When Can You Book your Tickets?

The national carrier informed that these tickets for flights to the US can only be booked the Air India website from IST 20:00 hours on July 6, or

• EDT 10:30 hours on July 6, 2020 for New York,
• CDT 09:30 hours of 6 July, 2020 for Chicago, and
• PDT 07:30 hours of 6 July, 2020 for San Francisco

Fourth Stage of Vande Bharat Mission

According to the PTI, in the fourth phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, Air India will send 170 flights from India to:

Canada, the US, the UK, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Thailand, South Africa, Russia, Australia, Myanmar, Japan, Ukraine and Vietnam.

In fact, this fourth phase of repatriation flights bringing back stranded Indians from all around the globe started from July 3.

 Since then, nearly over 700 flights have reached India, bringing back about 1.50 lakh Indians, according to the information shared by the External Affairs Ministry.

US Finally ‘Okays’ the Vande Bharat Mission

India started sending our Air India flights to different countries around the globe, for the objective of bringing back Indians stranded in different countries, from May 8.

Since then, a plethora of flights have operated between India and different parts of the world.

Unfortunately, US President Donald Trump had imposed restrictions on Air India’s ‘Vande Bharat’ repatriation flights.

On June 22, the US Department of Transportation announced that Air India could not operate repatriation flights from India to the United States without its prior approval.

It did so as retaliation for the Indian government not allowing American carriers to operate between the two countries.

Consequently, on Tuesday June 23, the Aviation Ministry announced that India is considering the establishment of bilateral talks with the US, UK, Germany, and France, which will allow airlines of each country in this pact to operate international flights.

Also, earlier this week, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) made an announcement that International air travel to and from India shall be