Indians who need to return to their work, homes or families in the UAE have got a major relief as India and the UAE have allowed their airlines to carry people authorised to travel between the two countries from 12-26 July.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has announced that all residents of the UAE who want to head back from India will be able to do so on the Vande Bharat Mission flights, starting 12 July till 26 July. Indian nationals will also be able to travel back on charter flights being operated from the UAE to India.
“As part of the close strategic partnership between the governments of India and the UAE, and with a view to assisting UAE resident nationals who are at present in India to return to the UAE, the civil aviation authorities of both countries have agreed to operationalise the following arrangement from 12 July 2020,” the Civil Aviation Ministry said.
Now, charter flights operated by UAE will be permitted to bring Indian citizens from the UAE to India and carry those who are approved by Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) of the UAE on their return leg.
Until now Vande Bharat flights operated by Air India Express were flying empty out of India while bringing back Indians from the UAE. The same was for the airlines of UAE, which were not allowed to bring passengers into India, but could fly out UAE residents.
Air India Express CEO K. Shyam Sundar said, “Happy to announce Air India Express has opened its flights between 12th and 26th July for 15 days from India to UAE for sale to Indians with UAE Resident Permits.”
This is being seen as a huge relief for stranded residents of the UAE in India who were caught in an ongoing tussle between the civil aviation authorities of the two countries. However the international flight operations in India will remain suspended till 31 July. Earlier, several countries, including the US, had objected to the Indian government’s decision to operate Air India’s charter flights for bringing back a large number of Indians around the world, while denying their airlines a share of the same.