Air India will complete the first phase of its repatriation flight programme called the Vande Bharat Mission on Wednesday. While the expectation was for 14,800 arriving passengers, 8,503 stranded Indians have arrived as of morning hours of May 13.

"In 1st phase of Vande Bharat we were to bring back 14,800 Indians on 64 flights. 8500 Indians have already returned till this morning. More flights are underway," union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri wrote on Twitter.

He added: "In the 2nd phase the numbers are being doubled. 30,000 more Indians will return from 31 countries on 149 flights."

Simultaneously, the data of outbound passengers from India on the repatriation flights suggests that there is weak traffic, largely due to the visa advisories and travel restrictions in the destination countries.

According to Ministry of Home Affairs, only foreigners will be allowed to leave for their countries, or those who hold visa of at least one-year duration of that country, or green card or Overseas Citizens Of India (OCIs) cardholders. In case of death of a family member or medical emergency, Indian nationals holding six months' visa can also be allowed.

According to the outbound data for Air India group flights from May 7 until May 10, only 833 passengers travelled on 25 repatriation flights. This indicates an average of 33 passengers per flight.

Further, analysing the independent outbound numbers of the 25 flights reveals that there were some flights which did not have any outbound passengers at all such as the Air India Express IX 611 from Chennai to Dubai and IX 183 from Delhi to Sharjah.

As far as inbound passengers are concerned, 3,908 passengers had arrived via 23 flights as of May 10. This indicates an average of 170 incoming passengers per repatriation flight.

Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express are to operate a total of 64 flights over a period of seven days from May 7 until May 13 to bring back 14,800 Indians as per a government order. However, the latest count of arriving passengers stand at 8,503 via 43 flights.

Out of the 64 flights, Air India is to operate 40 flights and Air India Express the other 24 flights to 12 countries including the USA, the UK, Bangladesh, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the Philippines, the UAE and Malaysia to repatriate 14,800 Indians in the first phase.

The second phase of the repatriation mission will include flights to new destinations that were not covered in the first phase.

"Phase-2 of Vande Bharat from 16-22 May will also include flights from Armenia, Australia, Belarus, Canada, France, Georgia, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Nigeria, Russia, Tajikistan, Thailand & Ukraine," Puri wrote on Twitter.

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First Published:May 13, 2020 3:19 PM IST