BIAL facilitates safe transit of about 3,000 foreign nationals

Team Udayavani, Apr 30, 2020, 10:04 AM IST

Bengaluru: The Bangalore International Airport Limited has facilitated safe transit of nearly 3,000 foreign nationals with 22 flights transporting passengers to 17 destinations across the globe from Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru (KIA) during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown.

These flights were coordinated between governments to help foreign nationals, stranded in Bengaluru and across South India due to the nation-wide lockdown, return home.

In preparation for each of these flights, the Terminal and other passenger touchpoints were cleaned, fumigated and sanitised to ensure passenger safety, the BIAL said in a statement.

“With the support of BIAL staff at the Terminal, working with CISF, Immigration and Airline staff, it was ensured that passengers maintained social distance and had access to hand sanitisers and masks,” the BIAL said.

While Tokyo saw the largest number of passengers with JAL operating three flights over three consecutive days, Incheon (South Korea) was second, with Korean Air operating one flight, it said. The other destinations were Azerbaijan, Baghdad, Cairo, Colombo, Doha, Frankfurt, London, Male, Muscat, Paris, Paro (Bhutan), Riyadh, Rome and Stockholm and Tbilisi (Georgia).

The first evacuation from the KIA was to Frankfurt with Air India operating a flight on March 31.

Of these destinations, this was the first time the KIA facilitated flights to eight new cities which included Baku (Azerbaijan), Baghdad, Cairo, Incheon, Paro (Bhutan), Rome and Stockholm and Tbilisi (Georgia).