Air India To Operate 75 Flights To US, Canada Under Vande Bharat Mission

The flights will operate between June 9 and June 30. (File)

Air India on Wednesday said it will operate 75 outbound passenger flights to select destinations in the US and Canada between June 9 and June 30 under the Vande Bharat Mission.

"Those who wish to travel to the United States and Canada and fulfill required entry conditions can book themselves on these outbound flights. Some foreign airlines have already carried out evacuation flights and are planning to operate more flights. These flights will also take foreign nationals," Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted.

He said the aforementioned 75 flights will go to destinations like New York, Newark, Chicago, Washington, San Francisco, Vancouver and Toronto.

Domestic passenger flights resumed in India from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India.

The central government, however, started the Vande Bharat Mission from May 7 to bring back the stranded Indians from abroad through special inbound flights. It is for the first time that outbound flights have been included under the mission.

"Under Mission Vande Bharat, AI will be operating 75 flights from India to select destinations in USA and Canada from 9th to 30th June 2020. Bookings on these flights, ex India only, will tentatively be open from 1700 Hrs on 5th June 2020 only through Air India website," the national carrier said on its website.

Air India and its subsidiary, Air India Express, operated 64 flights under phase one of the mission. They plan to operate around 300 flights in the ongoing phase two of the mission to evacuate a total of 70,000 Indians stranded globally.