Hyderabad, April 7 A special relief flight of Air India on Tuesday airlifted 99 US citizens stuck in Hyderabad.
The flight, which took off from Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA), carried the US citizens to Mumbai, from where they will be further connected with Delta Airlines from Mumbai to their final destination in the US.
An airbus A 320 aircraft landed here from Mumbai at 3.12 P.M. and departed for Mumbai with the US-bound passengers at 4.15 P.M.
The flight was operated from the main passenger terminal building of RGIA, airport operator GMR said in a statement.
In coordination with the US Consulate and the Telangana State government, a group of 98 adults and one infant US-bound passengers arrived at the airport from various parts of Hyderabad. All these passengers were serviced through the fully-sanitized main passenger terminal building, which has been kept ready for evacuation operations.
To meet this emergency requirement, a select group of personnel from GHIAL Terminal Operations, Airside Operations, Airport Operations & Control Center, Air Traffic Control, IT Team, Central Industrial Security Force, Landside Security and others were present.
Special screening and safety measures were in place during the flight's handling to protect against the COVID-19 threat including thermal screening prior to terminal entry, mandatory social distancing enforced through special queuing arrangements at all passenger processing points.
The airport, shut for regular commercial operations from March 22, has so far handled three evacuation flights.
On March 31, it handled a group of 38 German nationals who flew by a special flight of Air India which ferried the passengers from Chennai, Hyderabad and Mumbai to Frankfurt.
The airport on March 28 serviced a special medical evacuation flight of IndiGo, which dropped its eight crew members bound for Hyderabad and departed to Chennai with five stranded IndiGo crew members.
RGIA's cargo terminal is also fully operational to keep the vital link of essential supplies completely alive. The cargo is working round the clock in close coordination with various agencies to keep rolling the critical chain of essential supplies like medicines, vaccines, medical equipment, pharma raw material and defence goods.
( With inputs from IANS )