Air-India evacuates stranded Germans from Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to Frankfurt

A group of 38 Germans who were stranded in Hyderabad were evacuated by a special flight of Air India on Tuesday to Frankfurt.

The AI 3005, Dreamliner (Boeing B787-8) landed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport on Tuesday morning carrying some German nationals from Chennai. From Hyderabad it flew to Mumbai, to take in some more Germans stranded there.

According to the GMR Hyderabad International Airport Limited (GHIAL) officials, 19 female, 17 male and 2 infant passengers from Hyderabad were serviced through the fully sanitized Interim International Departures Terminal (IIDT), kept ready for the evacuation measure.

Special screening and safety measures were in place during the flight’s handling to protect against the COVID-19 threat including thermal screening prior to terminal entry, mandatory social distancing enforced through special queuing arrangements at all passenger processing points.

Since the airport operations are closed because of the ban on all flights, a few personnel from all departments from CISF, immigration-customs to terminal operations were pressed into service to meet this emergency requirement.

As per the flight itinerary, from Mumbai, all German nationals were to be flown to Frankfurt in Germany.

On 28 March, RGIA handled a special flight of IndiGo to evacuate its crew stuck in Hyderabad.

“While RGIA is keeping the evacuation flights operational as per requirements, its cargo terminal is working round the clock in close coordination with all concerned officials to keep rolling the critical chain of essential supplies like medicines, vaccines, medical equipment, pharma raw material, defense goods, bank-related goods,” said one GHIAL official.