Covid 19 coronavirus: Inside Sehion Tours chartered Singapore Airlines flight from Kochi, India to Auckland

More privately organized repatriation flights are planned from South India to Auckland.

A private charter flight organized by Sehion Tours and Travels arrived over the weekend from Kochi with 203 passengers on board.

Among the citizens and residents of New Zealand there were 24 babies.

Sehion director Sijo Abraham said that all passengers were required to take the Covid-19 test within three days of departure and all tested negative.

“It has been a long wait to get approval for this flight and I appreciate all the help and guidance from the New Zealand and Indian government authorities.”

The firm chartered a Singapore Airlines A350-900 for the flight with the airline’s crew in full personal protective equipment.

The flight returned with Indian nationals who had been stranded here.

Another flight is scheduled on September 19 from Auckland to Kochi for the stranded Indians.

” Many passengers are excited to join their family after a long time of separation and are happy to return to work after the quarantine, ” Abraham said.

The flight traveled through Singapore, where it stopped to refuel.

Although those on charter flights were tested for Covid, this country’s Health Ministry does not believe that pre-departure tests are effective on their own.

” You could still have Covid-19, even if the test is negative. Various measures are needed to keep people safe, including quarantine upon arrival in a country, ” it says on its website.

Since April, the New Zealand government has chartered 10 Air India flights, three Air NZ flights and one commercially managed private charter flight.

So far, more than 3,000 people have been repatriated from India.

“More flights are expected to occur, subject to continued availability of space in managed isolation and quarantine facilities. We are currently working to confirm an anticipated flight schedule to align with the availability of space in managed isolation and quarantine facilities,” he said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce says.