Govt allows Air Asia flight to bring stranded Indians back from Kuala Lumpur

New Delhi, Mar 17: India on Tuesday allowed an Air Asia flight from Kuala Lumpur to land in Visakhapatnam despite a ban from flights from Malaysia.

"Appreciate the difficult situation of Indian students and other passengers waiting in transit at Kuala Lumpur airport. We have now approved @AirAsia flights for you to Delhi and Vizag. These are tough times and you should understand the precautions. Please contact the airline," S Jaishankar said on Twitter.

At least 300 Keralites, including students, are stranded at the Kuala Lumpur airport following cancellation of flights to India due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Those stranded have come from various countries including Philippines, Cambodia and Malaysia.

"We are students from Philippines. We are stranded since the past few hours as many flights have been cancelled. We cannot go back to Philippines and neither the Indian government is prepared to take us. We are trying to contact Indian officials. None of us want to go back to Philippines," a woman student said in a video telecast by various channels.

According to her, there are many from various parts of the country, who have been waiting for hours at the transit airport at Kuala Lumpur airport.

After they got the boarding pass, they were informed that flights have been cancelled, some of them said in a video.

Flights to Kerala, Bengaluru and Chennai have also been cancelled, the passengers said.

Jose K Mani, Rajya Sabha MP, said he had got in touch with Indian officials.

Most stranded passengers are Indian citizens