Doha: IndiGo, an Indian budget airline, will fly 28 repatriation flights from Qatar to India. Till now only state-owned Air India and Air India Express were allowed to take back Indians who wished to go home.
IndiGo is allowed to operate 97 flights to Gulf countries from Kerala. The flight dates or airports are not announced yet.
In a press conference this afternoon Indian Aviation Minister has said that Indian private airlines has shown interest in joining the Vande Bharat Mission of repatriating Indians from different parts of the world. He said they will be allowed to join in and later maybe International airlines also could join in the mission. He didn’t divulge any details.
In a statement today IndiGo said that they have been “authorised to operate 97 Kerala reparation flights to the Middle East. Adhering all the precautionary measures, the flights will be operated between Kerala and Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia. IndiGo has been granted nearly half of the total 180 repatriation flights allotted to private airlines."
The 97 repatriation flights will include 28 from Doha, 23 from Kuwait, 10 from Muscat and 36 flights from Saudi to Kerala.
Indian Embassy in Qatar said that seven flights has left Doha as part of Vande Bharat Mission taking 1197 passengers, plus 40 infants to India.
