BENGALURU: Around 3,000 foreign nationals had left Bengaluru in 22 flights to 17 overseas destinations amid the lockdown, extended to contain the coronavirus spread in Karnataka, the airport operator said, here on Wednesday.
"We facilitated safe transit of around 3,000 foreign nationals in 22 flights to 17 destinations world over during the lockdown," said Bangalore International Airport (BIAL) in a statement.
As a consortium of public and private partners, BIAL operates the Kempegowda International Airport at Devanahalli, about 40km northeast of this tech city.
"The first repatriation flight was to Frankfurt in Germany on March 31, while Japan Airlines operated three flights to Tokyo and Korean Air one flight to Incheon," it said.
The remaining flights were to Azerbaijan, Baghdad, Cairo, Colombo, Doha, London, Male, Muscat, Paris, Paro, Riyadh, Rome, Stockholm and Tbilisi.
"Evacuation flights to Baku in Azerbaijan, Baghdad in Iraq, Cairo in Egypt, Incheon in South Korea, Paro in Bhutan, Rome in Italy, Stockholm in Sweden and Tbilisi in Georgia were the first operated from Bengaluru," it said.
The airport was fumigated and sanitised before and after each flight. Passengers maintained social distance and had access to sanitisers and masks in the departure terminal.
"The flights were coordinated by the governments of the foreign nationals who were stranded in Bengaluru and other southern Indian cities since the lockdown on March 25 and extended on April 15," it said.