At a time when civil aviation sector has been halted to ensure minimal spread of coronavirus, Delhi airport handled 30,000 stranded passengers and over 12,600 Metric Tonnes (MTs) of cargo while 1,310 evacuation and cargo flights operated from March 25 to May 4.
Connecting well with 78 destinations across the world, most number of evacuation flights were operated by Afghanistan which took back 3,900 citizens, followed by Japan with 3,300 citizens. The Netherlands operated flights to carry back approximately 3,000 citizens.
According to Delhi airport authorities, In lockdown period starting from March 25 till April 15, evacuation flights to 58 (16 domestic and 44 international) destinations operated out of Delhi Airport while 27,500 foreign nationals and 2,300 Indians were evacuated during this period.
India has been under lockdown for 40 days as a part of the government’s effort to contain the spread of coronavirus pandemic, which has taken over 200 countries into its grip.
While the complete lockdown came into force from March 25, 2020. Initially, it was for three weeks, till April 14, 2020, but was extended till May 3, 2020. The Government has extend it further for a period of two more weeks that is till May 17.
Following the announcement of lockdown, all commercial flight operations came to a halt at the Delhi Airport on March 25, 2020. “ However, during the lockdown, Delhi Airport was not shut even for a day. It remained functional 24x7 and till May 4, 2020 it handled around 1,000 cargo (scheduled and non- scheduled) and over 1310 evacuation (arrival and departure) flight movements — both domestic and international,” “Even before the lockdown Delhi airport handled more than 20 special evacuation flights operated by several Covid-hit countries,” airport official said in their white paper on flight operations during lockdown.
Notably, these flights were operated by 44 countries including the US, Britain, Germany, Japan, Norway, Poland, Russia, France, Afghanistan, Bangladesh to repatriate their stranded citizens from India, following permission from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).