Budget carrier SpiceJet on Friday said it has operated over 1,000 charter flights to repatriate 1.75 lakh passengers so far in times of the pandemic. The charter flights included 16 long-haul services to and from London, Amsterdam, Toronto and Rome, among others, SpiceJet said in a release.

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Besides, the airline operated more than 8,500 cargo flights carrying around 63,000 tonne of vital supplies and cargo to and from destinations such as Almaty, Baghdad, Bishkek, Cambodia, Cairo, Cebu, Chad, Colombo, Erbil (Iraq), Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh, Huangzhou, Incheon, Kabul, among others, it said. Of the 1,019 passenger charter flights, as many as 722 were operated from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar alone, to bring more than 1.3 lakh Indians back home, it said.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India. Domestic passenger flights resumed in India on May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Achieving the 1,000 charter flights milestone and repatriating 1.75 lakh people is a true reflection of our motivation and commitment,” said Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet. From the UAE, 315 charters were flown to help more than 62,625 Indians travel back home to Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat, among others, it said.

Another 295 charter flights were operated from Saudi Arabia to different parts of the country repatriating more than 51,575 Indians. From Oman, SpiceJet operated 74 charters bringing back 12,950 Indians while 38 charters were flown from Qatar, repatriating around 6,654 people, SpiceJet said.

Besides repatriating Indians from these four countries, SpiceJet operated multiple charters to and from Kuwait, Kabul, South Korea, the Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, the Netherlands, Lebanon, Georgia, Hong Kong, Bangladesh, Maldives, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka, it added. SpiceJet also operated 16 long-haul charter flights using Airbus A330-900 Neo aircraft to and from London, Amsterdam, Toronto and Rome helping more than 5,109 Indians and foreign nationals stranded for months to get back home, it said in the release.

First Published:Oct 16, 2020 4:12 PM IST