Air India on Saturday will operate three flights to Romanian capital Bucharest and one flight to Hungarian capital Budapest to evacuate stranded Indian nationals in Ukraine amid Russian military offensive against it. Around 20,000 Indians, mainly students, are currently stranded in Ukraine.
Over the decades, Air India has been the key airline when it comes to evacuating Indians from foreign countries during times of conflict. The carrier also has the distinction of carrying out the largest evacuation of people by a civil airliner and the same is mentioned in the Guinness World Records.
The recognition came for its evacuation of more than 1 lakh people from Kuwait following the attack on the country by Iraq in 1990.
Following are some of the key evacuation programmes carried out by Air India since 1994:
• May 1994 — Special flights were operated from Mumbai to Yemen's capital Sanaa via Muscat to evacuate Indians stranded in strife-torn Yemen
• September 1996 — The airline embarked on 'Operation Amnesty Airlift' to bring back Indians who did not have valid permits from the United Arab Emirates
• October 1997 — It evacuated stranded Indians who were compelled to leave Saudi Arabia before the amnesty deadline expired
• July 2006 — Brought back Indians from Lebanon via Larnaca in Cyprus
• March 2011 — Operated special flights to evacuate 11,345 stranded Indians from Cairo, following political turmoil in Egypt.
• August 2014 — Flights were operated to Djerba in Tunisia to evacuate more than 1,200 stranded Indians from Libya and Malta.
• April 2015 — Operated flights to evacuate Indians and other nationals stranded at Yemen's capital Sanaa
• January & February 2020 — In the wake of coronavirus outbreak, the airline operated flights to evacuate Indians stranded at Wuhan in China.
• May 2020 — The airline is operating flights under Vande Bharat Mission since May 7.
(With inputs from PTI)
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