London: The United Kingdom announced Friday an additional 12 chartered flights to bring over 3,000 of its residents stranded in India in the coronavirus lockdown back to Britain.
The additional flights planned from different parts of India, including from Punjab, Gujarat, West Bengal and South India, follows the seven chartered flights announced last week from Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi, taking the total number of people to be brought back on 19 flights to around 5,000.
“We are doing all we can to get thousands of British travellers in India home,” said Tariq Ahmad, UK Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
“This is a huge and complex operation which also involves working with the Indian government to enable people to move within India to get on these flights,” added Ahmad. The minister confirmed that 317 people landed back Thursday at the Stansted Airport in the UK from Goa, with 1,400 more set to arrive over the weekend from New Delhi and Mumbai.
The 12 additional flights planned next week for London will cover Amritsar April 13, 17 and 19; Ahmedabad April 13 and 15; Goa April 14 and 16 with an additional one via Mumbai April 18; Thiruvananthapuram via Kochi April 15; Hyderabad via Ahmedabad April 17; Kolkata via Delhi April 19; and Chennai via Bangalore April 20.
Jan Thompson, Acting High Commissioner to India, said: “We can confirm 12 more charter flights to bring British travellers back home – on top of the flights already launched. We are extremely grateful for the support we are receiving from the Indian government. Getting people home as quickly as possible remains our absolute priority.”
The FCO said that India is a priority country to arrange charter flights from, with a large number of Britons seeking to return and a lack of commercial options, ‘made more challenging by the size of the country and the restrictions on movement that are in place’.
To book flights and register their details, British nationals are asked to use the city-specific webpages listed on the FCO’s ‘India Travel Advice’ page. As movement within India is currently very restricted due to the strict social distancing measures imposed in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, the British High Commission in New Delhi said it will contact those who have confirmed seats on the flight with further details regarding transport.
The FCO said that those who are eligible to fly will be sent information on how to get to airports and flight itineraries directly when their seat is confirmed. Details regarding luggage allowance, flight costs and carriers will be available on the booking portal.
PTI