In the current COVID-19 crisis, Air India has, since the 31st of March, operated nine charter flights for the repatriation of German citizens. These flights flew out of Mumbai and Delhi, after collecting German citizens from across the country. However, the return flights from Frankfurt were ferry flights - meaning no passengers were on board.

Air India 787
Air India has operated many repatriation flights for Indians. However, this time they helped Germans get back to their country. Photo: Tom Boon/Simple Flying

The evacuation plan

The Indian Government had announced on the 19th of March that no scheduled international passenger aircraft will be allowed to depart for India after 05:30 local time on March 22. An advisory, which came just three days before its implementation, gave foreign tourists and ex-pats in India very minimal chances of returning home. Since then, an update to the advisory has extended the ban until at least the 14th of April.

In these circumstances, many airlines from around the globe have operated special flights to India to retrieve their citizens. Lufthansa, the German flag carrier, had already operated two special A380 flights to Delhi to take around 1,000 German nationals back home. However, there were still more than 2,000 Germans stuck in the country.

The German Ambassador to India had tweeted on the 30th of March:

"After flying 1000 stranded travelers from Delhi to Frankfurt last week, we’re working closely w/t IND authorities (esp MEA) to bring home many more."

Air India on the very same day, posted a schedule of charter flights after its agreement with German authorities. Ferry flights from Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Goa, Thiruvananthapuram, and Kolkata were operated to Delhi and Mumbai. From these hubs, a mix of B777s and B787s wereused to fly stranded Germans out of the country.

1
Air India has extracted Germans using various domestic flights. Almost a quarter of Air India's widebody fleet was operating to FRA on 31st March. Photo: Simple Flying

Five of these flights were operated on the 31st of March, two on 1st April and two on 2nd April. Since most of the connecting traffic was from southern India, eight of the nine flights originated from Mumbai and only one from Delhi.

Repatriation Services to India

Other than Germany, many other countries have flown across India to retrieve their respective citizens. Japan Airlines, has been operating a daily service from Haneda to Delhi to extract the large Japanese population. Aeroflot flew in a B777 yesterday from Moscow to Delhi for the same purpose. Air France, Finnair and Alitalia have operated flights out of Delhi too.

ANA and JAL Domestic Reductions
Closing its borders to foreigners is a familiar tactic for Japan. Photo: Getty Images

In the last week, more than 30 flights by international carriers have been operated out of Delhi. With a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases, a ban on international flights might be extended further. In the coming days, we can expect more airlines to operate repatriation flights to India.

1
Repatriation routes out of Delhi since 23rd March. Photo: Simple Flying

Conclusion

The United States has today announced its plans of operating repatriation flights to India in the coming week. With 15,000 Canadian citizens stuck in India, we can expect Air Canada to operate these flights too. Until normal scheduled flights are allowed into India, the repatriation saga will continue.

Let us know what you think of these repatriation flights in the comments.