A large number of foreign nationals flew out of India amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
As the Civil Aviation Ministry reports, around 1 lakh foreigner nationals left India over the last two and a half months since March 2020.
A total of 388 special flights, each with 250 seating capacity, were operated for this purpose from various Indian cities.
Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, British Airways, United Airlines and Ukraine Air were among the special flights operated.
Evacuating all foreign nationals was a hectic task as many of them were stuck in different locations across India.
Indian officials assisted the foreign governments by bringing the stuck foreigners to main cities, from where the respective airlines evacuated them.
In some instances, India operated charter flights to move foreigners from one city to another, from where they would catch their destination flight.
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) alone repatriated around 8,950 foreign nationals in 53 evacuation fights between March 25-May 14, 2020.
Of this, the majority of foreign nationals belonged to Tehran, London, Singapore, Kenya, Mauritius, Tokyo, Muscat, Atlanta, Zurich and Bali, among others.
Atlanta alone accounted for 2,000 passengers, the highest number of repatriates sent to any foreign destination from CSMIA during this period.
Around 1,500 were evacuated from Ahmedabad via British Airways in 13 relief flights, followed by 1,000 from Kolkata.
Kerala saw the repatriation of 53 Omani nations, 170 UK nationals, 18 UAE nationals and 164 Swiss nationals.
Thiruvananthapuram alone had 110 British nationals, 206 Kuwaitis and 160 Maldivians.
Hyderabad saw the evacuation of 135 Bahrain nationals and 72 passengers to Sharjah.
More than 3,000 foreigners flew to 17 global destinations from the Kempegowda International Airport since the lockdown began.
Goa repatriated around 6,000 foreigners in 35 international relief flights to various global destinations, since March 22, 2020.
Many foreign students and pilgrims were evacuated from Chandigarh and other places to Bhutan, Myanmar and other neighboring nations.
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