Doha-T’Puram flight scheduled to bring back stranded Indians cancelled

Sources say the flight is likely to be rescheduled for Tuesday.
Non-Resident Indians Arriving in Kochi
Non-Resident Indians Arriving in Kochi
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The flight from Doha to Thiruvananthapuram scheduled to arrive on the night of Sunday, May 10, carrying Non-Resident Indians as part of the Vande Bharat expatriate evacuation Mission has been cancelled.

An official of the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport told TNM that Air India Express has sent an official letter saying that the flight has been cancelled. The letter, however, didn’t mention the details. The flight, IH 374, was scheduled to leave from (Kozhikode) Karipur International airport to Doha and was to ferry NRIs back to Thiruvananthapuram. A source said that it didn't leave from Karipur airport, as Qatar did not give permission for landing, and that the flight is likely to be rescheduled for Tuesday.

The flight was expected to carry 182 passengers and was scheduled to land by 10.45 pm.

The district administration and the airport authorities had made all arrangements to receive the NRIs arriving by the flight. The returnees were mostly from the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kanyakumari, Kollam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta. 

District Collector K Gopalakrishnan and City Police Commissioner Balram Kumar Upadhyay had assessed the preparations on Saturday.

This was the fifth flight to ferry NRIs from the Gulf to Kerala as a part of the Vande Bharat Mission and the first flight to land in Thiruvananthapuram.

Two flights had landed at Cochin International Airport and Kozhikode airport from Abu Dhabi and Dubai respectively on Thursday night. On Friday two flights carrying 335 people from the Gulf countries landed in Kochi and Kozhikode. The flight from Riyadh had carried 153 passengers to Kozhikode, while the flight from Bahrain with 177 passengers on board landed at Kochi airport.

Meanwhile, 698 repatriated Indians arrived at the Cochin Port by the Indian Navy's ship INS Jalashwa on Sunday morning. The group comprised 595 male and 13 female passengers, of which 19 are pregnant women and 14 are children below ten years.

698 Indians stranded in Maldives reach Kochi port onboard Indian Navy’s INS Jalashwa
 

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