Combating coronavirus: Odiya community in UAE arranges first charter flight for 210 passengers

Over 200 distressed Indian expats from the eastern state of Odisha will be repatriated in the first-ever charter flight from Dubai to Bhubaneswar next week. Previously, two flights under the Vande Bharat Mission were arranged by the Odisha Samaj UAE members repatriating around 300 distressed Odias in the UAE.
The special flight by Indigo is expected to take off with a total of 210 passengers from Dubai International Airport at 10.55am on June 18 and land at Bhubaneswar airport at 4.15pm.
"After arranging the previous two flights from Dubai to Bhubaneswar under the Vande Bharat Mission, we were flooded with calls and mails from distressed Odias here in the UAE, mainly blue-collar workers, requesting us to help them go back to Odisha. Since we couldn't get any confirmation of flights under the Indian government's Vande Bharat Mission, we decided to help our countrymen by arranging a charter flight. Each passenger has to pay Dh1,250 for a one way ticket to Bhubaneswar," Amiya Kumar Mishra, president of the Odisha Samaj UAE, told Khaleej Times.
Mishra added that more than 80 per cent of the passengers for this charter flight to Bhubaneswar are blue-collar workers, while the rest include elderly and pregnant women.
Members of Odisha Samaj had made the advance payment to the airline and the passengers will pay the ticket amount to the group. "Apart from this flight, we are looking to arrange two more charter flights to Bhubaneswar as there are still many Odias who want to be repatriated."
Mishra said that all the approvals for the chartered flight had come through from India and that the approval of UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will be received in two or three days before the departure of the flight.
The previous two direct flights from Dubai to Bhubaneswar took off on May 14 and May 20 respectively, with 149 passengers on each flight, Mishra said.
saman@khaleejtimes.com 
 

• Dubai