Private airlines Go First and Vistara have joined the Indian government’s mission to evacuate stranded citizens from war-torn Ukraine, while domestic market leader IndiGo, which has been scaling up flights, will operate 12 more to Budapest, Bucharest, Rzeszow, Suceawa, Kosice, and Warsaw.
Wadia group’s low-cost carrier Go First had dispatched the first flight to Budapest in Hungary via Kuwait and it brought home 177 passengers on Friday to Delhi. The airline said it will fly two flights daily till March 10 as part of the Operation Ganga mission.
Air Vistara spokesperson confirmed that the airline will start operating flights from Saturday. It is likely to fly A321 aircraft to Bucharest. Air Asia India is also expected to join the mission and operate flights via Dubai to Suceava in Romania. IndiGo, which has already completed 30 flights as part of the mission, will operate 12 more flights till Sunday.
The airline will complete 42 flights, or more than half of the total repatriation flights, by Sunday, and will bring back 9,200 Indians. Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, the president and COO of IndiGo said, “We are humbled to fulfil our responsibility by operating more than 50 per cent of the flights under Operation Ganga and contribute towards the repatriationefforts by the Indian government.
We have already operated 30 flights bringing back more than 6,600 of our citizens till today
