NEW DELHI: Germany has mounted a massive exercise to fly out its citizens from India.

Air India will from Tuesday operate nine charter flights from cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai to Frankfurt on its wide-body aircraft to fly Germans back home over next few days. These aircraft will fly back from Germany to India as ferry flights (with no passengers). Last week, Lufthansa had operated two special flights from Delhi — double-decker 500-seater Airbus A380s — to fly Germans back home.

Four flights from Mumbai and one from Delhi will depart on Tuesday. Prior to these international charter flights, Air India will be flying the stranded foreigners from cities like Goa, Trivandrum, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kolkata to hub Mumbai and Delhi.

Air India has operated a large number of special flights to fly back Indians stranded in corona hotspots like China, Japan and Europe. Thousands have flown back home on these flights.

There is huge demand for similar charters by AI from other countries too, like the US, UK and Canada, to fly back their citizens from India. "The situation is very fluid. Discussions are on but as of now no decision has been taken," sources said.

German ambassador to India Walter J Lindner tweeted on Monday: "After flying 1,000 stranded travellers from Delhi to Frankfurt last week, we are working closely with Indian authorities (especially the ministry of external affairs) to bring home many more. Challenges amidst lockdown not small, but we’re working on it 24/7… We continue to do everything humanly possible to bring the stranded travellers still remaining in India back to Germany."

The US embassy tweeted on Sunday: "We anticipate several flights departing from New Delhi and Mumbai returning to the United States this week… it is likely (these) flights will have stricter than usual limits on the weight of luggage as well as be unable to accommodate pets." US citizens stranded in India would need to fill out a form put up online by the US embassy and enrol in their "Smart Traveler Enrolment Program"’ for critical information about flight opportunities.

Other countries are also keen to operate special flights to fly back their citizens from India. Canada, for instance, wanted to fly out its citizens from India. But for now AI can operate only quick turnaround flights on which the entire operating crew returns on the flight back. Sources said Canada was informed that the possibility of flying its citizens from India to somewhere in Europe, from where it could make arrangements to fly them home, could be discussed. AI has operated special flights to China, Europe and Israel by taking two sets of crew so that one set operates on the way out and the other while flying back home.

At this point, when schedule commercial flights to India are suspended till April 15, AI wants to have its crew back on the same flight to avoid stranding them in foreign lands. "We have to be fully ready with our fleeting personnel to operate special flights to fly out foreigners or fly back Indians from across the world whenever the government asks us to do so. So no chance is being taken," said a source.

