Vande Bharat: 820 international flights scheduled from 19 countries in October under phase 7, says MEA

Addressing the weekly media briefing here, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said 16.45 lakh Indians have been repatriated through different modes of the Vande Bharat Mission till Sept 30.

" With this, Phase 6 has come to an end. Under this phase, 894 international flights and 142 feeder flights have been operated from 24 countries reaching 24 airports across India and repatriating an estimated 1.75 lakh persons," the spokesperson said.

"To meet the continued demand, Phase 7 of VBM has beenoperationalised from today, 1 October 2020. As of now, 820 international flights have been scheduled from 19 countries to be operated under Phase 7 during the course of this month," he said.

" These include mainly flights from among the 14 countries with which India has a bilateral ‘air bubble’ arrangement in place. These flights will reach 24 airports across India, repatriating an estimated 1.5 lakh people," he said.

The spokesperson said the Ministry has undertaken a further assessment of demand for repatriation from other countries and projected the requirements to Air India.

"Flights will be scheduled from these additional stations in the coming days," he said.