In one of the largest evacuation exercises, the government will operate 64 flights from May 7 to 13 to bring home nearly 14,800 Indian nationals stranded abroad due to the coronavirus lockdown. These special flights would be operated by Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express. Maximum flights will be to Kerala at 15, followed by Tamil Nadu & NCR at 11, Maharashtra and Telangana at 7, Gujarat at 5, Karnataka and J&K at 3, and Punjab and UP at 1. Overall 10 flights will come from UAE, which hosts the largest number of Indians globally, many of them blue-collared workers. 7 flights will come each from Bangladesh, UK, Malaysia, US, 5 from Singapore, Philipines, Saudi Arabia, 4 from Kuwait, 2 each from Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. Over All 25 flights, the maximum will come from the Gulf region.
