Air India Express (AIE) has been given the mandate to operate 23 flights to bring back stranded non-resident Indians from West Asia, Malaysia, and Singapore from Thursday.
Of the 23 flights that will be operated till May 13, 14 will be to the four airports in the State. Kochi has been given nine flights, Kozhikode three, and Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur one each.
In addition to the airports in Kerala, the airline will station aircraft in Tiruchi, Chennai, Lucknow, Amritsar, and Bengaluru.
The first flight to bring back non-resident Keralites will depart from Kochi at 12.20 p.m. on Thursday to reach Abu Dhabi at 3.15 p.m, sources said. The flight will return with 177 passengers at 4.15 p.m. to reach Kochi at 9.40 p.m.
The second flight on May 7 to Dubai will depart at 1.20 p.m. from Karipur. It will depart from Dubai at 5 p.m. to reach Kozhikode at 10.30 p.m. In addition to the two cockpit crew, AIE will be deploying four cabin crew in the flight.
“The crew for the two flights were tested for COVID-19. All have tested negative and certificates have been received,” sources in Air India Express said.
Protective equipment
The crew will be wearing personal protective equipment and the passengers will be provided snacks and drinking water during the flight.
Social distancing norms to contain COVID-19 are not being followed in seating as it is not practical in commercial aircraft operations, the sources said.
