The Hindu : AI, IA plan to evacuate Indians

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 12, 2003

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AI, IA plan to evacuate Indians

By Gargi Parsai

New Delhi Feb. 11. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has asked Air India and Indian Airlines to prepare a contingency plan for airlifting Indian workers from the Middle East in the event of war in the region. Although there has been no "abnormal" bookings from Indians in the region to return home, the plan has been put in place to cause as little disruption of air services as possible, sources said.

Both the airlines, which operate to the Gulf, have been asked to be ready from February 15 to pull out aircraft from normal schedule for evacuating Indians from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait at a notice of three days. If necessary, the plan will become operational after the Security Council meeting on February 14. This might result in rescheduling/cancellation of normal flights.

Between them, the airlines will airlift 50,000 Indians under the banner of flag carrier, Air India. While Air India will offer 1,500 seats a day on one Boeing B747-400, one B747-200, two Airbus-310 aircraft, Indian Airlines will deploy two Airbus A-300, three A-320 to operate 10 to 11 flights a day. The return flights will be operated from Mumbai to Damman. The same flights may be operated on their way back to Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram. Passengers to Calicut would also be brought to these places as there are no night facilities there. Operation of an A-300 flight from Mumbai to Dammam and back is estimated to cost Rs. 39 lakhs and for an A-320 Rs. 23 lakhs. It is not clear yet as to who will foot the bill and compensate airlines for losses.

Air India may have to reschedule/cancel flights to destinations like New Jersey, Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo, as are the sectors on which the Boeings and A-310 are deployed. Indian Airlines will reschedule or combine flights on short sectors to pull out aircraft for the special operations. There might be some cancellations too. If it happens, the evacuation operations are expected to last about a week.

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