Bollywood actor Sonu Sood has funded yet another chartered flight to ferry 173 migrant workers to Dehradun from Mumbai in an aircraft operated by Air Asia.
According to an Air Asia spokesperson, the Airbus A320 plane with 173 migrants onboard departed from Mumbai's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport at around 01:57 pm and landed at the Jolly Grant Airport in Deharadun at 04:41 pm on Friday.
"As another charter flight takes flight today, our efforts to help migrant workers stranded in various parts of the country have only grown stronger. Most of them have never had the opportunity to experience air travel, and the smiles on their faces brings me a lot of joy as they take this Air Asia flight to reach home to their families and friends," news agency PTI quoted the Bollywood actor as saying. Sood added he was looking forward to funding more such flights in the near future.
Last week, Sood arranged a special chartered to ferry 167 migrant workers from Kerala to their homes in Odisha.
Air Asia's head of sales and distribution, Anup Manjeshwar said that with "Umeed ki Udaan" or chartered flights for migrants, all our efforts are aimed at uniting stranded migrant workers with their families as the nation is combating its way out of the coronavirus pandemic.
Manjeshwar added the plight of migrant workers had been heartbreaking and that Sood had been a pillar of strength in these trying times.
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