Vande Bharat Mission: First flight carrying stranded Indians from Dubai lands at Kochi

An Air Indian repatriation flight from Dubai with 182 Indian nationals onboard landed in Kozhikode, Kerala on Thursday.

The flight took off from Dubai International Airport evacuating Indians stranded in the city due to coronavirus lockdown.

"The flight from Dubai to Kozhikode had a total of 182 passengers onboard - 177 adults and 5 children," said Kerala's Department of Information and Public Relations. The flight landed at Kozhikode International Airport on Thursday. The repatriation was carried out under India's massive evacuation effort named 'Vande Bharat Mission'.

Earlier, the first repatriation Air India Express flight with 181 passengers from Abu Dhabi landed at Cochin International Airport. India has commenced the massive evacuation operation beginning today.

Air India will operate 64 flights from May 7 to May 13 to bring back around 15,000 Indian nationals stranded abroad amid the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

Starting from 7 May, 64 flights will take off for 12 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Maldives, Singapore and the US.