Coronavirus: Air ticket prices for repatriation to India will be nominal

Dubai - Those travelling first will include Indian workers in distress, medical cases, pregnant women, and a few on tourist and visit visas.

Air tickets for repatriation flights to India will be not be exorbitantly priced, an official source close to the matter revealed to Khaleej Times on Tuesday. The official pricing of tickets is yet to be revealed by the Indian ministries of Civil Aviation and External Affairs, along with social distancing norms within the aircraft.

"The ticket prices will be nominal, an amount everyone can afford. However, the final pricing of air tickets will be revealed by the Indian missions in the UAE shortly," said the source. He added, "The first list of passengers awaiting return on the flights to Kochi and Kozhikode will also be revealed by the missions."

After weeks of uncertainty amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, the government of India has announced special evacuation flights starting Thursday, May 7.

The Indian Ambassador to the UAE, Pavan Kapoor, told Khaleej Times on Monday that the Indian missions in the UAE will coordinate one of the biggest evacuation operations of citizens, and will cull out the first list of distressed citizens to fly home.

"We will make a flight manifesto and will decide who will go on which flight. The list will be made from those who are already registered on our website," said the envoy. Nearly 200,000 Indians stranded in the UAE have registered themselves on the website.

Those travelling first will include Indian workers in distress, medical cases, pregnant women, and a few on tourist and visit visas.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com

• India