Rescue Ops: Air India to mount flights to Romania, Hungary
Darpan News Desk IANS, 25 Feb, 2022 01:23 PM
New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) As hostilities continue between Russia and Ukraine, the Tata Group-led Air India will mount direct flights to Romania and Hungary for bringing back stranded Indians.
Romania and Hungary share land borders with Ukraine.
Many Indian nationals, including students, have made their way into these countries from Ukraine.
Air India will operate two flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbai, to Bucharest (Romania) and Budapest (Hungary) on Saturday as special government charter flights.
These flights will be operated on Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft which have a capacity of 254 passengers per plane.
"Air India has always been playing a pivotal role, standing by the nation during any crisis and now, inspired by the common mission shared by the Tata group and AI of serving the nation & its people first," the airline said late on Friday night.
"Our employees are only too eager to respond to the call of our nation, driven by our values & conviction that 'if we don't do it then who will?'," it added.
Earlier, Air India was operating direct special flights to Kiev but it had to stop these operations due to a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) issued over the closure of the Ukrainian air space.
In fact, one of Air India's flight bound for Kiev from New Delhi returned to the national capital's IGI Airport after NOTAM was announced at Kiev airport on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the airline had carried out the first of its special flight operations ferrying Indian citizens from Ukraine.
Apart from Air India, other Indian operators were expected to start special flight services to Ukraine.
Last week, the Centre removed the restrictions on the number of flights and seats between India and Ukraine, evidently to facilitate the return of Indian students and professionals stranded in the east European nation due to the ongoing tensions with Russia.
Former Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday lashed out at the Congress high command for appointing Ajay Maken as the Chairman of the screening committee for shortlisting candidates for the next Vidhan Sabha elections in Punjab. In a statement here, Amarinder Singh said Maken is the nephew of (late) Lalit Maken, who was one of the main culprits of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi.
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said the sand mafia in Punjab alone runs illegal business of over Rs 20,000 crore. There are serious allegations of direct involvement of ruling Congress MLAs, their ministers and their close associates, including the Chief Minister himself.
Farmers' agitation on the borders of the national capital is likely to end soon as the Centre on Tuesday gave a written assurance on their demands. After a meeting in the evening, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spear-heading the agitation, said that they will meet again on Wednesday as they have sought some clarifications from the government on its communication.
Accompanied by a high-level delegation, Putin visited New Delhi for the 21st India-Russia annual summit. He extended an invitation to Modi to visit Russia for the 22nd India-Russia Annual Summit in 2022.
For the third consecutive day, Maharashtra reported cases of Covid-19 variant Omicron, with two more in Mumbai taking the state's tally to 10, health officials said on Monday.
Police officials said that the gang of six members, including two women, began its activities just before the first lockdown in 2020. The main member, the kingpin of the racket, identified as Neeraj of Haryana's Bahadurgarh, was apprehended by the police near PVR Cinema, Sector-14, Prashant Vihar, Rohini.
