Charter flights from UAE to resume

Services, which were banned last week, will resume on Friday

With the Ministry of Civil Aviation giving its clearance, chartered flight operations from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to bring back stranded Indians that was suspended last week will resume on Friday.

The Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had curbed the repatriation flights after the UAE government enforced restrictions on the national carrier Air India and private Indian carriers.

Hundreds of Non Resident Keralites (NoRKs), who had booked tickets in the chartered flights operated by Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad and Flydubai, were affected by the decision. Following the sudden DGCA decision, the chartered flight that was organised under the aegis of Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) from Abu Dhabi was cancelled in the last minute, leaving many stranded.

As the ban on the scheduled international flights continued, the NoRKs were running from pillar to post to get back home.

Since June 25, institutions and organisations were barred by the Centre to apply directly to operate chartered flights from various foreign countries. Instead, the airline companies were asked to first approach the governments of the States to which the chartered flights were to be operated for a consent letter and then secure the approval of the DGCA.

“The DGCA has now asked the airlines who had applied earlier to submit fresh applications. The airlines have got the clearance for charter operations from the UAE from July 10,” airline sources told The Hindu.

Indian carriers, including the private ones, ferried 32,435 stranded NRIs from the UAE till July 2 while carriers from the UAE operated 356 flights to Indian ports, including to the four airports in Kerala, carrying 67,559 NRIs.

Private Indian carriers have now come forward to operate more repatriation flights. SpiceJet will operate 19 more flights under the ‘Vande Bharat’ Mission to evacuate 4,500 stranded NRIs from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Oman. The flights will be from Ras Al-Khaimah, Jeddah, Dammam, Riyadh and Muscat to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, and Mumbai.

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