RGIA facilitates Vande Bharat evacuation flight from US to Hyd

Hyderabad: As part of the biggest ever off-shore evacuation drive of Indian Citizens under the Govt. of India’s Vande Bharat Mission, amid the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown, the stranded Indian citizens are getting airlifted from across the globe. Contributing towards this national cause, GMR led Hyderabad International Airport handled the second arrival evacuation flight from the United States of America on Monday.

The national carrier – Air India flight – AI 1617 – from San Francisco (USA) arrived via Mumbai at the Hyderabad International Airport on 11th May at 09.22 AM with 118 Indian citizens stranded in the US.

Later in the day, GMR Hyderabad International Airport is all set to receive another batch of Indian Citizens from Abu Dhabi (UAE). The Air India Flight – AI 1920 is expected to arrive at around 9.30 PM here on Monday.

To facilitate the arriving passengers and aircraft crew, the Hyderabad International Airport has kept the international arrivals and the entire stretch right from the aerobridge to the arrivals ramp fully sanitized and fumigated, this included – sanitization of every nook & corner of building and public areas including washrooms, chairs, counters, trolleys, railings, doors, lifts, escalator’s etc. The airport also enforced the social distancing among passengers right from the aerobridge to across the terminal.

All arriving passengers and aircraft crew were brought out from the aircraft in a batch of 20-25 persons each. Each passenger/crew was screened by the Thermal Cameras positioned at the aerobridge exit under supervision of the Airport Health officials (APHO) as per the directives of MoH&FW (Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) prior to Immigration formalities.

  • RGIA facilitates Vande Bharat evacuation flight from US to Hyd

After the health screening of passengers, CISF personnel in their protective gears escorted the group of passengers to immigration clearance. Glass shields were provided at each manned immigration counter to avoid any personal contact between the passengers and Immigration officers. Each counter had specified social distancing norms in place.

The concerned Airline, their Ground Handling Staff and airport personnel were available to guide the passengers and to enforce the social distancing norms.

  • Every baggage was sanitized by the disinfection tunnel integrated to the baggage belt as arranged by the airport. The baggage trolleys were kept fully sanitized for passengers’ use.
  • The passengers were also provided seating arrangement with complimentary boxes of food.
  • As per the govt’s norm the passengers were taken for mandatory 14 day quarantine at the designated locations in the city.

To meet this emergency requirement, apart from the State/Central Govt. representatives, State Police, CISF (Central Industrial Security Force), Immigration, Customs, a select group of personnel from GHIAL Terminal Operations, Airside Operations, AOCC (Airport Operations & Control Center), ATC (Air Traffic Control), IT Team, Landside Security, Airline Ground Handlers, ARFF (Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting) services, RAXA security, Trolley Operators, Housekeeping Staff, among others were available to ensure safe and seamless arrivals of the passengers.

On 9th May, 2020, Hyderabad Airport handled its first Vande Bharat evacuation flight (AI 988) from Kuwait, in which 163 Indian citizens arrived Hyderabad at 9.51 PM and were quarantined by the govt.

Till 11th May 2020, GMR Hyderabad International Airport has handled 12 departures evacuation flights serving over 900 foreign nationals who were repatriated by various special relief flights from Hyderabad city to the countries viz. the UK, the UAE, the US, Kenya and Germany.