Indian High Commission on Monday, June 1 announced details of five flights coming from India to New Zealand to take home stranded passengers.
The flights will be departing from Auckland on June 17, 20, 24 & 28 and Jul 2, and taking back stranded passengers to Chandigarh, Delhi, Ahmedabad Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai, Trivandrum & Chennai respectively.
The manner in which these flights will be operated is that all incoming flights from India will be coming to Auckland and then flying back to New Delhi and Mumbai directly (four flights will go to NDLS and one to Mumbai).
Immediately after landing in Delhi, there will be further connecting domestic flights to Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Trivandrum and Chennai as per the table below.
The announcement was made by the office of the Indian High Commission on their Facebook page on Monday, June 1.
This multi-city flight announcement is in line with the earlier reporting by the Indian Weekender, where the Indian High Commission Muktesh Pardeshi has explained the "cluster approach" being pursued by the government of India and arranging for flights directly to several regional centres in India.
Mr Pardeshi had then told the Indian Weekender that several flights will be arranged directly to regional cities so as to minimise further domestic travel within India and also for better quarantine arrangements and minimise any potential risk of Covid-19 infection.
This announcement coming from the Indian High Commission is expected to remove all confusions and anxiety within the stranded Indian citizens since last few days after some unconfirmed news about charter flights back to India had caused much uncertainty.
The stranded travellers who have become jaded and exhausted after such a long unplanned stay away from their homes and families had rightly then shown immense interest in the prospect of charter flights back to India.
However, since that news was still a "work in progress" behind the scene that still required to be confirmed by official authorities before being released to the public, caused much confusion all around.
Now with this latest confirmation coming from the office of the Indian High Commission, with probable flight capacities, there will be lot more certainty within both - the stranded travellers seeking to return home at the earliest - and the authorities planning their further ticketing and departure from New Zealand.
With the news of five more flights coming from New Delhi & Mumbai, there are more chances for every eligible Kiwi to enter NZ to catch one of these flights.
It is recommended for stranded Kiwis to contact with NZ High Commission in New Delhi (after having registered themselves on safe flights) for further permission and information.