Emirates gets permission for repatriation flights from four Indian cities

New Delhi : The Emirates airlines on Sunday announced that they have got all necessary permissions to operate repatriation flights from four Indian cities till July 26.

The Dubai-based airline had on July 11 announced that it would be operating special repatriation flights from Bengaluru, Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai and Thiruvananthapuram to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) between July 12 and July 26.

In a press release on Sunday, the airline clarified that the repatriation flights between Kochi, Delhi, Mumbai, Thiruvananthapuram and Dubai are permitted to carry eligible passengers on both the directions.

However, the flights from Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata to Dubai "will carry passengers only outbound from India", the airline said.

On July 9, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had come to an bilateral agreement, also called air bubble, under which the two countries had allowed international flight operations for the eligible passengers from both the countries.

India resumed its domestic passenger flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

The international flight operations had come to an halt after March 23 when India announced a lockdown to control the spread of coronavirus.

More than 10 lakh people have been infected and around 26,000 people have so far died due to coronavirus in India.