Vande Bharat Mission: Air India to open booking for these seven places in US; details here

After successfully bringing back around 58,867 stranded Indians from across the world, the Government of India is all set to begin the third phase of the Vande Bharat Mission, with Air India opening the bookings of seven destinations from 5 PM on June 5. In the third phase, Air India will operate flights to evacuate Indians from the United States and Canada. The booking for the following places will begin on Friday:

• New York

• Newark

• Washington

• Chicago

• San Francisco

• Toronto

• Vancouver

here for the booking link: 

Vande Bharat Mission

As thousands of Indians were stranded abroad amid coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent lockdown that was imposed, the Government of India decided to bring them back to the country via aircraft and naval ships in a phased manner. Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express started operating international flights from May 7 onwards to repatriate stranded Indians from abroad. Between May 7 and June 1, Air India group has operated a total 423 inbound international flights under the mission, bringing 58,867 Indians back.

READ | Vande Bharat Mission: Air India's 7th flight leaves from Moscow to bring home 143 citizens

The first phase of the mission was set for 7 days starting from May 7 to rescue stranded Indians from over 11 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Maldives, Singapore, and the US. 

In the second phase of the mission, the Indian government brought back Indians from around 31 countries from May 16 to 22. However, the government extended the date for the second phase till June 13. More countries have been added in the second phase including Finland, South Korea, Belgium, New Zealand, Netherlands, Kenya, Mauritius, Spain, Myanmar, Maldives, Egypt, and Sri Lanka. 

READ | Ticket prices set by Air India for flights under Vande Bharat Mission are reasonable: Puri

Fare details by Civil Aviation Minister

Amid controversy over the ticket prices set by Air India for special international flights being operated under the Vande Bharat Mission, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that they are reasonable. The Minister shared a list of prices of various international flights to different locations on Twitter and said:  "While rates being charged are not normal commercial rates, they are reasonable when compared to evacuation flights of other countries." 

"Economy fare paid by travellers for evacuation flights organised by the concerned (US) Embassy from India was Rs 3.00 lakhs for Houston. Indians pay ₹1.03 lakh on India-US sector (flights) under the Vande Bharat mission which is nearly one third," Puri mentioned. Similarly, travellers paid ₹1.62 lakhs to Toronto and ₹1.84 lakhs to Vancouver for evacuation flights organised from India by the Canadian High Commission, the minister said.

READ | Vande Bharat Mission: Stranded Indians in Japan arrive at Narita Airport

READ | Vande Bharat Mission: Over 57,000 stranded citizens returned to India since May 6