India operates 5th Vande Bharat flight to China

Beijing, Sep 10: Air India on Thursday operated its fifth Vande Bharat flight to China from Delhi, carrying over 200 passengers, mostly Indian professionals stranded in India due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fifty-five passengers, mostly Indians wanting to return homes, boarded the flight back to Delhi, officials of the Indian embassy here, who coordinated the flight, told PTI. The flight from Delhi with 212 passengers, mostly Indian professionals and their families stranded in India due to COVID-19, landed in the east Chinese city of Ningbo in the evening, they said.

The flight had a technical halt in Kolkata. All the passengers travelling to China have to serve a 14-day mandatory quarantine in designated hotels.

India has so far operated five Vande Bharat flights. The previous four flights flew to the eastern Chinese city of Shanghai and the southern city of Guangzhou besides three earlier to the central city of Wuhan to airlift Indians stranded in the city when the virus was at its peak in February. The flights helped Indians held up in China and those wanting to return to work to Chinese cities.