Repatriation flights Phase 2: More flights across Europe and Asia expected in coming days

India is currently underway with Phase One of repatriation flights to India, which has 64 flights and already has an expected 15,000 or so citizens to be brought back to the country. Here are many of the posts we have written on the subject:

With hundreds of thousands of people expected to still be left behind, obviously more flights are needed to bring Indian citizens back to the country. To this effect, many reports have started emerging over the weekend that India is well underway with the Phase 2 planning of this mission.

One of the best reports on the subject, written by Hindu Businessline’s Ashwini Phadnis, offers lots of details on the scale of Phase 2. About 125 flights are planned at the moment in Phase 2, which is double the current size of the mission in Phase 1, and many flights will fly to countries where there are no bilateral flights between the two countries. Many of these flights could also be adding on a second tag domestic route to drop off passengers at a second airport.

Flights are expected to fly to bring back Indians from Nigeria, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ireland, Canada, France, Italy, Russia, United Kingdom, Indonesia and the US. Some unique city pairs may also come through, for instance, a non-stop flight from San Francisco to Bengaluru and a flight between London and Kochi with a stop in Vijaywada. Flights from Russia could arrive state capitals directly and not via Delhi or another metro.

Bottomline

The details are not available at the moment, but it looks like a bigger scale. I am also hoping the other Indian carriers will be involved in this mission to ensure that there is an equitable spread across various carriers. For instance, Vistara has one Boeing 787 which will be able to bring back more people than a narrowbody aircraft in one go. Similarly, IndiGo has a fleet of A321s which will be able to take 220 or so passengers per flight. As and when more details are made available, we will bring them to you. So, keep checking back.

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