German airline Lufthansa operated a repatriation flight between Frankfurt and New Delhi on Thursday to ferry 501 German nationals stranded in India after international commercial flight operations were halted as part of measures to combat Covid-19 pandemic.
The special flight -- an A380 aircraft -- departed at 1245 CET as repatriation flight LH9912 from Frankfurt to New Delhi on Wednesday and arrived at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here around midnight last night.
The return flight, LH343 to Frankfurt, departed from New Delhi at 01:30 a.m. on Thursday.
Since 14 March, Lufthansa Group airlines, Swiss, Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa and Eurowings have flown about 220 special flights back to the home countries of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium. Over 70 further flights are already in preparation.
"Carrying out repatriation flights and bringing people back home is the responsibility that Lufthansa Group airlines bear being part of the critical infrastructure in the home countries of Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium," George Ettiyil, senior director sales, south Asia, Lufthansa Group said,
"For us being able to operate the repatriation flight with the A380, it was very helpful that Indian authorities decided to extend visas of foreigners in India last week," Ettiyil said in a statement here.
(Published 26 March 2020, 18:08 IST)
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