750 Private, 350 Air India Flights To Be Added in 3rd, 4th Phases of Vande Bharat Mission

Domestic private carriers have been offered to operate 750 repatriation flights in 3rd, 4th phases of Vande Bharat Mission: Aviation Minister
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Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, in a press conference on Saturday, informed that Domestic private carriers have been offered to operate 750 repatriation flights in the 3rd and 4th phases of Vande Bharat Mission.

The minister further announced that more flights will be added in the coming days.

  • Puri said that 750 private carrier and 300 Air India flights will be added in the coming days in addition to the already operational flights, tweeted PTI.

Sharing the data, Puri informed that under Phase-1 of the Vande Bharat Mission, Air India operated 64 inbound flights and 64 outbound flights.

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325 inbound and outbound flights in Phase-2 and 192 inbound, 200 outbound flights in Phase-3.

Additional flights have been planned by Air India in phase 3 and phase 4.

  • 300 flights are planned by Air India Express, and approximately 750 flights have been offered to domestic private airlines.
  • Around 40 odd flights are already being planned by private operators.
  • Puri mentioned that flights operated by foreign airlines for Indians stranded in Latin America and some parts of Africa could be operated in collaboration with Air India.

Talking about international flight operation resumption, Puri reiterated that the decision to resume regular international operations will be taken as soon as countries ease restrictions on the entry of foreign nationals. The minister mentioned that destination countries have to be ready to allow incoming flights. “Globally the situation is far from normal,” he added.

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Regarding domestic flight operations, Puri mentioned that India’s domestic aviation is currently 33% and when the percentage reaches 50% more routes and flights are added.

  • He said that most countries conduct less than 10% international operations because they only allow their own citizens to enter and have placed restrictions on foreigners.

Note that Puri said last month that domestic flight operations from Diwali will normalize again (in November).

He mentioned that restarting the economy was crucial as the expansion of the nationwide ban could be “more devastating than COVID” for the country.

“By Diwali (in November), we will have all our 650 aircraft operated by Indian carriers (flying),” the minister said in an interview. “This may sound optimistic but what else we are going to do?” Puri highlighted that India’s recovery rate from coronavirus disease was higher than those of other countries.

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Read also – Just 0.03% of over 12 lakh domestic flight passengers test positive for COVID-19

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Manish Khandelwal
Manish Khandelwal

Manish Khandelwal, a travel-tech enthusiast with over a decade of experience in the travel industry. Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Travelobiz.com, he's passionate about writing.

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