New Delhi, India: On Saturday morning, Air India AI-1943 landed in Bucharest, Romania, for the evacuation of stranded Indians in Ukraine.
After the air route to Ukraine was shut down, this is the first special flight that is taking a different route. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner has a capacity of 250 people, and it is assumed that at least that number would return to India. The administration is expected to operate such flights to Ukraine's neighbouring nations in order to remove stranded Indians.
On Saturday, Air India would add more flights to Bucharest and Budapest, Hungary's capital, to repatriate Indians stranded in Ukraine.
Since the morning of February 24, the Ukrainian airspace has been blocked to civil aircraft operations, therefore evacuation flights are being operated out of Bucharest and Budapest.Officials estimate that 20,000 Indians, mostly students, are currently stranded in Ukraine.
Air India had launched a flight to Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, on February 22 that carried 240 people back to India before the Ukrainian airspace was closed. On Friday, the Indian embassy in Ukraine announced that it is working to set up evacuation routes from Romania and Hungary.
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