Air India to charge commercial fares from stranded Indians abroad

New Delhi : Indian citizens who will be airlifted during the evacuation drive from May 7 will have to pay their commercial air flight ticket in order to return to the nation, said Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri.

According to the minister, flights from Chicago, San Francisco, Newark and Washington will cost nearly ₹100,000. A flight from London to Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru and New Delhi will cost ₹50,000 per passenger, tickets from Dubai will cost ₹13,000 and from Abu Dhabi ₹15,000. Flights from Singapore and Malaysia will cost ₹ 20,000.

Air India will be sending around 64 flights between May 7 and May 13 to these countries. 

Interestingly, the passengers will also have to pay for their stay in quarantine facilities, but a final decision on this will be taken by the State governments, the Minister said.

To a question on why were passengers being charged airfares on par with commercial rates, Mr Puri said, “This is a commercial service. We will not be offering subsidised fares. As it is Air India is surviving on a government subsidy of ₹500 crore to ₹600 crore per month and most private airlines are hand-to-mouth and are loss making.”

He also mentioned that the ticket prices have been kept for two-way journeys as all the flights will be going empty from India.