More Indian airlines have stepped up to expedite the evacuation process of Indian students from Ukraine. Private carriers such as IndiGo, Air India Express, and SpiceJet will operate special flights from Hungarian capital Budapest and Romania’s Bucharest to evacuate stranded Indians from Ukraine.
According to a report by Hindustan Times, Livemnt's sister publication, SpiceJet has used its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft for this special flight. A Spicejet aircraft flew off at 10:30 PM on Monday and is scheduled to land in India and is expected to land in Budapest at 7:05 Am. The flight will be back in Delhi at 1:45 PM on Wednesday.
On the other hand, budgeted carrier IndiGo said it will be operating four additional flights--two flights each will be operated from Delhi to Budapest, Hungary and to Rzeszow, Poland via Istanbul, respectively. These aircraft will depart Delhi today, March 1.
As per the daily, Air India Express has taken off for Bucharest with 182 stranded passengers on Monday and will land in Mumbai on Tuesday around 9:30 AM. "It will have a stopover at Kuwait for refuelling," an airline spokesperson told HT. it is the seventh flight that has departed from the Romanian capital Bucharest for Mumbai under Operation Ganga, according to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
the Government of India is evacuating Indian citizens from Ukraine under the evacuation plan titled 'Operation Ganga'. India began the evacuation process of its citizens from Saturday (Feb 26) via Bucharest and Budapest. Both Hungary and Romania share a border with Ukraine. Since the Ukrainian airspace is shut since February 24 due to the Russian military offensive, therefore, the evacuation flights are landing in Ukraine's neighbouring countries.
So far, Air India has evacuated 1,396 Indian nationals on six flights. Yesterday, the fifth Air India flight landed in Delhi from Bucharest with 249 Indian nationals. And the sixth one arrived from Budapest with 240 nationals. The domestic carrier will also operate additional flights to Budapest on Tuesday (March 1). MEA officials told a parliamentary panel they are planning 13 other flights in the next 2-3 days and subsequently nine flights a day.
Meanwhile, four union ministers have been deputed to countries bordering the war-hit nation to oversee the rescue efforts. The government has also decided to send Union ministers Hardeep Puri, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Kiren Rijiju, and General (retd) V K Singh to Poland, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, and Moldova to oversee the evacuation of Indians.
India is using the land routes to evacuate its citizens as Ukraine has closed its airspace for civilian aircraft following the Russian attack.
