NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Tuesday night announced that 58 flights will be deployed by Indian carriers on Wednesday to bring back stranded passengers from West Asia. It also specified that 1,609 flights have been cancelled by Indian as well as foreign carriers due to the ongoing crisis in the region.
In an official statement, the Ministry said that a total of 24 flights were operated by Indian carriers on Monday. Additionally, foreign carriers Emirates and Etihad have operated nine flights from the Gulf region in the last 24 hours, it said.
“Indian carriers are further planning 58 flights on 4th March, including 30 by IndiGo and 23 by Air India and Air India Express,” the Ministry said. “We are in continuous touch with airlines and closely monitoring airfares to ensure that there is no undue surge in ticket prices during this period,” it said.
Till date, 1,221 flights by Indian carriers and 388 flights by foreign carriers have been cancelled due to the ongoing situation, it explained.
Indian carriers have undertaken calibrated adjustments to their schedules, with long-haul and ultra long-haul operations being progressively resumed through alternative routings that avoid restricted airspace, the Ministry added.
Air India to deploy aircraft with highest seating capacity
Air India on Tuesday night announced that it was deploying its widebody aircraft with higher seating capacity from Indian airports to Jeddah and Dubai to bring back passengers stranded due to the West Asia situation.
“A Boeing 777 aircraft with a capacity of close to 350 seats departed from Jeddah on Tuesday evening. A Boeing 787-9 aircraft with around 300 seats will depart from Delhi to Dubai on Tuesday night and another Boeing 787-8 aircraft with over 250 seats will depart from Mumbai to Dubai in the early hours of March 4, “ the airline said in a statement. “All the flights are expected to operate at full capacity on their return sectors on 4 March, arriving at Mumbai and Delhi, respectively,” it added.
IndiGo announced that it would be reinstating select flights from Wednesday. In a statement, it said it would operate 13 return flights from Muscat, Jeddah, Medinah and Athens covering 26 sectors on March 4. “Repatriation flights to stations in the UAE on March 4 are being worked out and will depend on the local situation and necessary approvals.” IndiGo said it operated four flights to Jeddah and one to Muscat on Tuesday to bring back passengers.
