Vande Bharat Mission: Air India's special flights to take people back to US, UK, Singapore

National carrier Air India will not just bring back Indian citizens to the country under the Vande Bharat mission but will also send people back to the US, UK, and Singapore on special flights.

The national airline will book flights only for those destinations that are allowing people to enter. The Ministry of  Home Affairs had also issued rules on who can fly out of India on special flights. The MHA  stated, "Only those persons shall be allowed to travel to the destination countries, who are citizens of that country; who hold a visa of at least one-year duration of that country, and green card or Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders". The ministry added, "In case of medical emergency or death in the family, Indian nationals holding six-month visas can also be allowed".

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Meanwhile, two of Air India's repatriation flights (to San Francisco and London) have been postponed as one of its crew members tested positive for coronavirus. Air India's first fight was scheduled to depart at 3.30 am on Wednesday from Delhi to San Francisco. And, its second flight was scheduled to depart at 6.30 am on Wednesday from Mumbai to London. Both the flights have been postponed by 48 hours. Air India's flight to Singapore has been scheduled to leave from Delhi at 11.15 pm on Thursday.

#FlyAI : Important Update for passengers regarding evacuation flights from India. Please visit https://t.co/FOAixDQ0Qo for details. pic.twitter.com/O23kcKLVlU

- Air India (@airindiain) May 6, 2020

Air India will also operate 64 repatriation flights for a week from May 7 to bring back thousands of its nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

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