Air India Express to operate special flights to Doha, Kuwait, Muscat, Kuala Lumpur, Sharjah today

Air India Express, a subsidiary of Indian national carrier Air India will operate repatriation flights to Doha, Muscat, Kuala Lumpur, Sharjah, and Kuwait on May 9 for Indians stranded abroad.

The airline will operate five special flights from India today;

IX 475 From Kochi to Doha
IX 395 From Kochi to Kuwait
IX 443 From Kochi to Muscat
IX 682 From Tiruchirappalli to Kuala Lumpur
IX 183 From Delhi to Sharjah.

While all the flights will return to the point of origin, the flight IX 184 (return flight for IX 183) will first land at Lucknow and then at Delhi.

Bookings of all the special evacuation flights are open and people who are eligible wish to travel to these countries can book the flights directly from Air India Express’s Website.

Air India Express Flight Departure Schedule : 09 May 2020

Flt No	Origin	Dep Time	Destination	Arr Time	Fleet	Seats
IX 0396	Kuwait	13:45	Kochi	21:15	B737-800NG	177
IX 0476	Doha	19:05	Kochi	01:40	B737-800NG	177
IX 0442	Muscat	16:15	Kochi	20:50	B737-800NG	177
IX 0184	Sharjah	15:15	Lucknow	20:50	B737-800NG	177
IX 0681	Kuala Lumpur	20:25	Tiruchirappalli	21:40	B737-800NG	177

The eligibility criteria depend on Departure and Arrival country and we suggest you check your eligibility first before making any booking.

Right now the number of passengers traveling from India in special evacuation flight are very less: on 08th May only Just 01 Passenger traveled in Air India repatriation flight to Singapore while there were no passengers from Chennai in the Air India Express repatriation flight to Dubai.

Separately, Air India Express has opened bookings for special flights to Singapore and Doha, dated May 12 and May 10 respectively.

The flight IX 373 will operate on May 10 between Kozhikode and Doha and the flight IX 0486 will fly between Kochi and Singapore on May 12.

It has also opened a booking window for Thiruvananthapuram-Bahrain flight scheduled for the nationals of Bahrain who have stuck in India due to lockdown.

According to Air India, only permanent residents of the country can travel on the flight. The flight, IX 0473, will be operated on May 8 and May 11.

Air India Express will operate a total of 24 out of 64 special flights planned by the Government of India in the first phase to bring back Indians stranded abroad. The cost of the travel will be paid by the passengers.

(With Inputs from CNBC TV18)