GMR-led Hyderabad International Airport handled the fourth ‘Vande Bharat’ arrivals evacuation flight from the United Kingdom (UK) in the early hours of Tuesday. The national carrier, Air India flight AI 1839, a Boeing 773 aircraft, arrived via New Delhi at the airport with 331 Indian citizens stranded in the UK. Passengers were serviced through the fully sanitised international arrivals of the main passenger terminal.
Later, the same aircraft departed as AI 1840 carrying 87 passengers from Hyderabad to New Delhi, from where they were to be airlifted to the US. The flight departed at 05.31 am. Passengers here too were serviced through the fully sanitised Interim International departures terminal that had been kept ready for these passengers. All safety protocols, including thermal screening and social distancing, were put in place to ensure a safe travel to passengers.
The airport has kept the international arrivals and the entire stretch right from the aerobridge to the arrivals ramp fully sanitised and fumigated. All arriving passengers and aircraft crew were brought out of the aircraft in a batch of 20-25 persons.
Each passenger/crew was screened by thermal cameras positioned at the aerobridge exit under supervision of the Airport Health officials (APHO) while CISF personnel in their protective gear escorted the passengers to the immigration clearance. Glass shields were provided at each manned immigration counter to avoid any personal contact between passengers and officials.
Passengers were taken for mandatory 14-day quarantine at the designated locations in the city. Four ‘Vande Bharat’ evacuation flights from various countries, including US, UK, Kuwait and UAE, repatriating over 750 Indian citizens stranded off-shore with passengers quarantined by the government on their arrival at homeland. About a dozen international flights serving close to 1,000 foreign nationals were repatriated by various special relief flights to other countries.
