167 international flights bring back 25,000 Bihar, Jharkhand natives

GAYA: Altogether 25,170 natives of Bihar and Jharkhand stranded abroad due to Covid-19 lockdown have been brought back to Gaya by special international flights under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ and chartered flight operations till Saturday evening. No less than 15 airlines, 11 of them foreign airliners have participated in the operation.
The foreign airlines that operated special flights include Fly Dubai, Salam Airways and Jazeera Airways.The four national airlines that operated special flights are Indigo, Air India, Spice jet and GoAir. As per statistics made available by the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Indigo has operated the maximum number of flights since the operations began on May 18, 2020. Indigo has so far operated 70 flights followed by Air India, the national carrier that operated 28 flights. Altogether 10,677 Bihar-Jharkhand natives have been brought back by Indigo.
Though separate figures have not been issued for Jharkhand returnees, as per informed sources about 90% of the 25,000 plus returnees are from Bihar.
Majority of them have lost their jobs. The foreign returnees have to remain in week-long institutional quarantine in Bodh Gaya followed by another week of home quarantine. Earlier, the Union Home ministry notified Gaya airport as the destination point for foreign returnees from Bihar and Jharkhand.
Country-wise break up of foreign returnees show that the maximum number of returnees are from Middle East countries like Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The number of returnees from Qatar, as per official figures is 4,684. While the number of returnees from Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia stood at 4342, 3434 and 1931 respectively. The minimum number of returnees is from UK and Myanmar. Only 41 returnees came from UK while the number of returnees from Myanmar is marginally higher i.e. 45.
Nearly 234 Bihar-Jharkhand natives returned from Russia while another 130 returned from Ukraine. More people are likely to return as the special flights continue to operate.
Meanwhile, despite repeated demands made by Gaya air users including the Grand Chord Passengers’ Association that besides, rail travellers from Magadh region, also represents the air travellers, resumption of domestic flights remains a far cry.
Asked about the resumption of domestic flights, Gaya Airport director Dilip Kumar said that permission has been granted to Air India and Indigo to operate domestic flights. Both the airlines have proposed to resume the flight from October 24, 2020. Whereas Air India sought clearance for operating flights on the Gaya -Varanasi- Delhi route, Indigo applied for Gaya -Delhi, Gaya - Bangalore and Varanasi - Gaya - Kolkata routes. “AAI has accorded its approval,” said the airport director.
However, according to Dr Farasat Hussain, a regular flier on Gaya-Delhi route, the airlines have not started bookings for the proposed domestic flights.