Vande Bharat Mission: Two Air India Express flights with 363 Indians land in Kerala

NEW DELHI: The Mammoth Vande Bharat Mission of flying back to thousands of stranded Indians abroad began with two Air India Express Flights arriving in Kerala from the United Arab Emirates on Thursday night with 363 people on board. The two flights: Abu Dhabi-Kochi IX 452 with 177 passengers and four babies, and Dubai-Kozhikode IX 344 with 177 passengers and five babies, landed around 10:30 p.m.

Passengers on the Abu Dhabi-Kochi flight at the airport after landing in Kerala

Earlier this morning, the 189-seat AI Express Boeing 737s took off for Kerala with two pilots and four cabin crew aboard each aircraft. AI’s low-cost arm will keep the last two rows of each plane vacant for passengers showing Covid symptoms in isolation. Therefore, the effective seat available is 177 (189-12 seats vacant in the last two rows). Both Abu Dhabi-Kochi and Dubai-Kozhikode will have their 177 seats occupied with babies on the parents’ lap according to the rules.

Air India Express Kozhikode-Dubai flight crew members
Crew members have been asked to wear full protective equipment before opening the aircraft door upon arrival at the destination from which the Indians are to return.

The Kochi-Abu Dhabi flight arrived in Abu Dhabi at 2.50 pm (local time). The crew uses PPE before opening the plane door to begin the return flight process with the Indians stranded there.
“Passengers have been asked to wear masks and gloves at the airports from where they will board the flights. When they go up, we will give them a package with two masks and a 100 ml bottle of disinfectant. Each guest will be given a box of food packaged with two cheese sandwiches, a slice of fruit cake and a 500 ml bottle of water. They and the crew will necessarily wear masks throughout the trip, ”said an official.
AI Express will operate 23 repatriation flights in the first week of the Vande Bharat Mission to fly back to Indians from places like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Sharjah, Doha, Muscat, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore to Kochi, Kozhikode and Trivandrum in Kerala and other Indian cities like Chennai, Lucknow, Bengaluru and Amritsar. In total, AI and AI Express will operate 64 flights during the first week of Vande Bharat from the Gulf, Southeast Asia, USA. USA And the UK to fly 14,800 Indians back from those places.
More about Covid-19

Air India Express began taking reservations for the “Vande Bharat” Thiruvananthapuram-Bahrain flight that will operate on May 8-11. Only Bahraini citizens and permanent residents can travel on these flights, says an airline official.
AI Express had to make many preparations to operate the first batch of 23 flights assigned under Vande Bharat. Since scheduled flights have been suspended since March 25 when the shutdown began, most of the crew members were in their home cities.
“We had to take them to places like Kochi, Kozhikode and Trivandrum where flights will operate. A special permit was taken to open some hotels to accommodate them and our flight provider was also authorized to restart the facilities to serve these flights. Covid tests are underway and all crew members have been trained to provide basic medical care at government medical schools, “said the official.
AI Express has partnered with Central Warehousing Corp to disinfect the aircraft, both in the passenger and cargo sections, before and after each flight.
Video: Vande Bharat Mission: Air India’s first flight from Abu Dhabi lands in Kochi