BENGALURU: The ongoing fourth phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, which aims to bring Indian nationals back from different countries, plans to bring 11,503 people to Karnataka. A total of 66 flights will facilitate this repatriation.
While most of these flights will bring passengers to Bengaluru, some flights from Gulf nations will land at the Mangaluru airport. A vast chunk of these special flights will be run by Air India and Air India Express, with Go Air and IndiGo chipping in.
As per the website of the Ministry of External Affairs, the fourth phase for Karnataka started on July 4 and will end on August 1. Majority of passengers will be from Gulf countries and 22 flights will be operated from there places. They will take off from Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, Dammam, and Jeddah. There will be 10 trips from the United States, eight from the United Kingdom, one each from South Africa, Sweden, Japan, and Malaysia, two each from Singapore and Germany, and three from Canada.
All the flights from US to Bengaluru will stop in New Delhi en route while those from UK will come via Mumbai or New Delhi. One-third of the 66 proposed flights are yet to arrive in Karnataka. This is a tentative schedule and is subject to change based on demand.