PremiumThe fifth phase of Vande Bharat mission is all set to start on August 1. "We will be soon announcing a host of additional flights under Vande Bharat Mission Phase 5 starting from 1st August 2020," Air India said in a statement.
During the fifth phase, the flights will go to the USA, Canada, Qatar, Oman, UAE, Australia, Germany, Thailand, Singapore, UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, New Zealand, Philippines and several other countries.
The Uniona aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, "Like we did earlier, more destinations and flights will be added as this phase progresses."
The Central government started Vande Bharat Mission on May 7 to bring back the stranded Indians due to coronavirus pandemic from foreign countries. Over 7.88 lakh Indians have returned under this mission till July 22, the ministry of external affairs said today.
During fourth phase of Vande Bharat Mission, India has operated 1,197 flights which includes 945 international flights and 252 feeder flights, said ministry of external affairs spokesperson Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said.
"These flights are operated by the Air India group, IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir. They cover 29 countries. They will be reaching 34 airports in India," he said.
India suspended international flights during the last week of March to prevent the COVID-19 spread. The central government recently allowed a few international flights, primarily to US, France and Germany under 'air bubbles'.
