BENGALURU: A Boeing 777 aircraft of Air India, carrying around 340 Indians from London, will reach the Kempe Gowda International Airport (KIA) via New Delhi on May 11. This will be the first evacuation flight to land in Bengaluru. Airport sources said the passengers of AI 1803 will reach KIA at 3 am and all of them would be mandatorily quarantined for 14 days.
Over the next few days, around 800 people from Karnataka are expected to arrive in the city in three Air India flights. The other flights will be from San Francisco and Singapore. They are part of the 10,800 passengers who will be repatriated to India from different parts of the world after being stranded since March 23 when the national lockdown was announced.
Giving details of the first flight, a source said AI 161 would depart from New Delhi on May 10 at 2.45 am. “It would reach London at 7.30 am local time. Later, AI 162 would depart from London (Heathrow airport) at 9.45 am and reach New Delhi at 10.50 pm on the same day. Nearly 90 minutes later, domestic flight AI 1803 would depart from Delhi to reach Bengaluru on May 11 am” the source said.
Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar, who inspected the improved screening facility at the airport, said the passengers will undergo screening at two stages and would be sent home only after confirmation that there were no symptoms of Covid-19. “Arrangements have been made to quarantine them in hotels, hostels and school buildings,” a health bulletin issued on Thursday said.