New Delhi (NVI): The United Kingdom today announced that it will fly out over 3,000 citizens stranded in India by 12 additional charter flights that have opened for bookings today.
This comes five days after the UK had announced seven charter flights on April 5 from Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi (April 8-12).
The 12 additional flights will airlift British nationals from Amritsar, Ahmedabad, Goa, Thriuvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai, the British High Commission said in a statement here.
This will take the total number of people brought back on these 19 flights to around 5,000, it said.
The additional flights will depart for London from Amritsar on April 13, 17, 19, from Ahmedabad on April 13, 15, from Goa on April 14, 16 and another flight from Goa (via Mumbai) on April 18 from Thiruvananthapuram (via Kochi) on April 15, from Hyderabad (via Ahmedabad) on April 17, from Kolkata (via Delhi) on April 19 and from Chennai (via Bengaluru) on April 20.
The UK foreign office has said that these flights to London are scheduled for the next 2 weeks and British travellers can visit the India Travel Advice page to reserve seats.
Meanwhile, the first charter flight from India arrived at London Stanstead yesterday with 317 British nationals on board from Goa, the UK High Commission said in a statement.
Tariq Ahmad, British Foreign Office Minister of State said, “We are doing all we can to get thousands of British travellers in India home. This is a huge and complex operation that also involves working with the Indian Government to enable people to move within India to get on these flights. Over 300 people arrived from Goa on Thursday morning, 1,400 more will arrive over the Easter weekend and these 12 flights next week will bring back thousands more.”
Acting British High Commissioner to India, Jan Thompson also said in a statement: “We can confirm 12 more charter flights to bring British travellers back home – on top of the flights already launched. We are extremely grateful for the support we are receiving from the Government of India on this. Getting people home as quickly as possible remains our absolute priority.”
The British Embassy further stated that UK Government is working with the airline industry and host governments across the world to help bring back British travellers to the UK as part of the plan announced by the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week (30 March) – with up to £75 million available for special charter flights to priority countries, focused on helping the most vulnerable travellers.
So far, flights have brought back British travellers from the Philippines, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nepal, Ghana, Tunisia, Algeria and Peru, it added.
