New Delhi, May 7: In a bid to bring back stranded Indians from the United States of America, national carrier Air India will operate several non-scheduled commercial flights for almost a week from Saturday. According to a tweet by ANI, these flights will depart from US and arrive in various cities in India from May 9 to May 15, during the first phase. The Embassy of India in Washington DC, USA announced that the cost of travel from designated airport in USA to the designated airport in India will be borne by passengers.

From Thursday, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express are all set to embark upon one of the world's largest evacuation operations. These flights under India's massive 'Vande Bharat Mission' are being organised to bring back stranded Indians from abroad. Overall, more than 190,000 Indian nationals are expected to be brought back in the airlift operation. India Likely to Operate 64 Flights From May 7 to Bring Back 15,000 Stranded Indians from 12 Countries.

Here's the tweet:

According to reports, Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express will at different time slots operate the first 'special ferry' flights from New Delhi, Cochin and Kozhikode to Singapore, Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively. Air India will operate the Delhi-Singapore flight on Thursday around 11 pm from IGI Airport in Delhi. The flight will arrive back to Delhi at 7 a.m. on Friday morning.

On Wednesday, Air India opened bookings for the special flights that will be operational from May 8-14 to bring back stranded Indians from several countries. The bookings were opened for the planes that would be flying to UK capital London, Singapore and select-cities in the United States of America to facilitate the return of Indian citizens.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 07, 2020 08:19 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).