As per the new roster, Indian government will be operating flights to countries like Israel, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Italy, among others till October 31.
Back in May 2020, Indian government undertook a massive evacuation programme called Vande Bharat Mission to bring back stranded Indians from various countries across the globe. The evacuation drive was triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic which forced India to shutdown all domestic and international flights in March last year. While domestic flights were gradually allowed to operated in a calibrated manner, international flights still remains banned from operating.
In order to bring back Indians who were stuck elsewhere due to sudden lockdowns, our government planned an evacuation drive called Mission Vande Bharat under which, national air carrier Air India was allowed to fly to countries only to bring back Indians.
Check complete list of Vande Bharat Mission flights here
Till date, almost 4 million people have been ferried in almost 30,000 flights, making it the largest of its kind activity in the world. The plan had originally envisaged to bring back only 1,90,000 Indian nationals. Initially, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express played a key role in the operations. Afterwards, other air carriers were allowed to take part in the programme.
In a tweet, Civil Aviation Ministry MoCA mentioned: “Vande Bharat Mission! Helping Indians Abroad!
Till 1st August, 2021
Inbound Flights : 14,968
Inbound Passengers : 2,261,720
Outbound flights : 14,965
Outbound pax : 15,62,069
Flights till date : 29,933
Passengers till date : 3,823,789″
Vande Bharat Mission!
Helping Indians Abroad!
Till 1st August, 2021Inbound Flights : 14,968
Inbound Passengers : 2,261,720
Outbound flights : 14,965
Outbound pax : 15,62,069
Flights till date : 29,933
Passengers till date : 3,823,789 pic.twitter.com/1vOMOv7RMK— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) August 2, 2021
As India is struggling to fight the second wave, Ministry of Civil Aviation has announced new round of Vande Bharat flights till October 31. The complete roaster of the flights can be checked above.
As per the new roster, Indian government will be operating flights to countries like Israel, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Italy, among others. All these countries doesn’t have a bilateral pact with India as of now. The schedule started from June 3 and ends on October 31.