Russia-Ukraine war: IndiGo mounts mission, to bring back 9,200 Indians on 42 flights

Low cost carrier IndiGo will be operating as many as 42 flights till March 6 as part of Operation Ganga, which is more than half of all repatriation flights, the airline said on Friday. The flights will bring back 9,200 Indians stranded in war-torn Ukraine.

IndiGo, which has more than 50 per cent of the domestic aviation market share, joined the evacuation mission from February 28 and has been adding more A-321 flights to speed up the effort to bring back Indian citizens.

The airline has already operated 30 flights till Friday to Budapest, Bucharest, Rzeszow, Suceawa, Kosice, and Warsaw and 12 more are planned. Some of these flights also carried relief material on their outward journey to Budapest and Rzeszow, while bringing back evacuees on the return leg via Istanbul.

Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, President and Chief Operating Officer, IndiGo said, “We are humbled to fulfil our responsibility by operating more than 50% of the flights under Operation Ganga and contribute towards the repatriation efforts by the Indian Government. We have already operated 30 flights bringing back more than 6600 of our citizens till today. IndiGo remains committed to supporting the Government of India in its mission to evacuate Indian citizens from the crisis in Ukraine. We are proud to see our operations team stepping forward to respond to the critical humanitarian need of the hour, enabling the safe return of our stranded citizens back to their families and homes. We will continue to contribute to the country in its time of need.”