Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar announced on Tuesday evening that Air Asia flights were approved to fly between Kuala Lumpur airport to Delhi and Visakhapatnam, after many who are stranded in the country reached out for help.
“Appreciate the difficult situation of Indian students and other passengers waiting intransit at Kuala Lumpur airport. We have now approved @AirAsia flights for you to Delhi and Vizag. These are tough times and you should understand the precautions. Please contact the airline,” the minister said in a tweet.
Many Indian citizens, including students, were stranded in Kuala Lumpur after India banned the entry of passengers from Malaysia, along with Afghanistan and the Philippines with immediate effect on Tuesday to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The order comes after all travellers, including Indian citizens, from the European Union, European Free Trade Association, Turkey and United Kingdom, were banned from flying into India from March 18 to March 31.
A woman student from the Philippines, in a video telecast by many channels, said that there are many who have been waiting for hours at the transit airport at Kuala Lumpur airport. After they got the boarding pass, they were informed that flights have been cancelled, some of them said in a video.
Flights to Kerala, Bengaluru and Chennai have also been cancelled, the passengers said.
Jose K Mani, Rajya Sabha MP, said he had got in touch with Indian officials. Most stranded passengers are Indian citizens, he said.
This comes a day after Malaysia announced that it would ban its citizens from travelling overseas and foreigners from entering the country to curb the spread of coronavirus. Large gatherings will be banned while shops and places of worship will be shuttered in the country, which has 553 cases, and reportedly saw its first COVID-19 death on Tuesday.
Following the ban by India, airlines cancelled their flights to those locations. Many countries across the world have partially or completely sealed their borders, causing major airlines across the world to ground most of their planes.
More than 7,100 people have died globally till now due to COVID-19.