Air-India set to evacuate Kuwait Indians

Air-India will operate three extra flights to Kuwait to bring home about 1,000 Indians even as it has laid down a contingency plan for evacu...

Air-India will operate three extra flights to Kuwait to bring home about 1,000 Indians even as it has laid down a contingency plan for evacuation of Indian nationals, within 12 hours of government directions, if war breaks out in Iraq.

Air-India director (public relations and national marketing division) Jitender Bhargava said the A-I is closely monitoring the situation and will put in additional flights as and when needed from Kuwait or any other point in the Gulf region.

‘‘ To meet up the increased demand from Indian nationals to return home, we will operate three flights to Kuwait which will carry around 1,000 passengers. These are no evacuation flights but extra services being operated as there has been a sudden demand from Indians to return home.”

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While two of these services will be operated with Boeing 747-200 aircraft on the Mumbai-Kuwait-Mumbai sector, one A-310 service will be operated on the Mumbai-Kuwait-Kochi-Mumbai.

AI will continue to operate normal services to Bahrain, Dammam and Kuwait till such time airports in these countries are available for flight operations and are not closed down once the hostility starts in Iraq.

Said Bhargava, “we have already made all the necessary arrangements to keep the operation uninterrupted. In case, all the airports close down, A-I will operate from Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia.”

From Tuesday, Air-India has already started operating its west-bound flights overflying Iran which entails an additional distance of 36 nautical miles. Air-India has simultaneously upgraded security at airports and increased surveillance.