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 world, Government of India is all set to begin third phase of Vande Bharat Mission, with Air India opening  bookings of seven destinations from 5 PM on June 5. In third phase, Air India will operate flights to evacuate Indians from  United States and Cana. booking for following places will begin on Friday:

• New York

• Newark

• Washington

• Chicago

• San Francisco

• Toronto

• Vancouver

here for booking link: 

Vande Bharat Mission

As thousands of Indians were stranded abro amid coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown that was imposed, Government of India decided to bring m back to 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 abro. Between May 7 and June 1, Air India group has operated a total 423 inbound international flights under mission, bringing 58,867 Indians back.

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

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

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

Fare details by Civil Aviation Minister

Amid controversy over ticket prices set by Air India for special international flights being operated under Vande Bharat Mission, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Thursday said that y are reasonable. Minister shared a list of prices of various international flights to different locations on Twitter and said:  "While rates being charged are t rmal commercial rates, y are reasonable when compared to evacuation flights of or countries." 

"Ecomy fare paid by travellers for evacuation flights organised by concerned (US) Embassy from India was Rs 3.00 lakhs for Houston. Indians pay ₹1.03 lakh on India-US sector (flights) under 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 Canian High Commission, minister said.

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