Fourth Phase of ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ starts from July 3

Under the fourth phase of ‘Vande Bharat Mission’, Air India will be conducting 170 flights to and from 17 countries between July 3 and July 15, 2020.

As per the Air India released document, the 170 flights will connect India with the US, Canada, the UK, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, South Africa, Thailand, Australia, Russia, Myanmar, Japan, Vietnam, and Ukraine.

The government had started Vande Bharat Mission on May 7 in order to help stranded people reach their destinations using special flights. The scheduled international flights were suspended in India since March 23, 2020, because of the pandemic.

VBM enters Phase 4 on 3rd July 2020. In this phase, @AirIndiain will operate 114 flights (between 3-15 July) including 31 flights to US, 19 to UK, 9 to Canada & 8 to Australia.
AI Express will operate 300 flights in July (136 upto 14 July & 164 between 15 July & 31July).

— MoCA_GoI (@MoCA_GoI) June 28, 2020

Key Highlights:

•  Within the span of 13 days, from July 3 to July 15, the passengers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Gulf Countries will be brought back under the fourth phase of ‘Vande Bharat Mission’.

•  Air India has scheduled 38 flights to the United States and 32 flights for the United Kingdom (UK).

•  As a large number of Indian citizens are residing in Gulf Countries, Air India has scheduled 26 flights for Saudi Arabia.

•  136 Air India Express Flights and 41 Go Air Flights will also be operating which will take the total number of flight operations to 347 under the fourth phase of Vande Bharat Mission.

•  In this phase, the number of flights is likely to increase because of more additions of the private airlines.

Mission to bring Indian Nationals Home amid pandemic:

‘Vande Bharat Mission’, world’s largest repatriation programme was initiated by the Central government. It has brought back nearly 1,50,000 Indian Nationals to date through around 700 flight operations from countries around the world, amid the pandemic.

Foreign Ministry of India informed that around 5,00,000 people had registered to return via land, sea, and air and 3,60,000 people have already returned under this programme.

Indian government started this mission to help stranded Indians reach their destinations as International flights all over the world were suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.