Details of repatriation flights to India are revealed
Emirates will operate repatriation flights to five Indian cities over the next fortnight as part of a major drive to help thousands of people left in limbo because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The flights – to Bengaluru, Delhi, Kochi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram, from today to Sunday, July 26 – will ensure many Indians stuck in the UAE for several months can return home. Emirates said flights to Bengaluru and Mumbai were subject to state government approval.
Tickets can be booked on the Emirates website and through travel agents, Emirates sales offices and its contact centre.
Passengers must meet all entry requirements of the destination to be allowed to board.
There will be two daily flights to Bengaluru, Delhi and Kochi, three to Mumbai and one to Thiruvananthapuram.
Emirates said flights from India to Dubai would be available “for UAE nationals and residents with prior entry approval from the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs for residents of Dubai and ICA approval for residents of other emirates of the UAE”.
It did not say whether flights to the UAE would be made available from all five Indian destinations.
All passengers travelling from airports in India to Dubai are also required to carry a negative Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction certificate issued by a laboratory authorised by the government of India to be accepted on the flight.
Certificates must be issued no more than 96 hours before departure.
Emirates repeated that only Indian citizens stranded in the UAE would be able to board the newly announced flights from Dubai.
Travel details were disclosed only days after the Emirati and Indian governments agreed to operate the special flights.
The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation said the charter flights by UAE airlines would take thousands of people home to India.
The fourth phase of the Salute India mission began on Friday, July 3, to take home residents who wanted to leave the Emirates.
More than 450,000 Indians registered and about 90,000 had returned home as of last month.