Muscat: The last flight of the Indian repatriation programme Phase 2+, AI 908 from Muscat to Chennai left Oman with 144 passengers and two infants at 2.47pm on Sunday.
The passengers, comprising stranded visitors, pregnant, elderly, people needing medical assistance and others travelling on compelling grounds were received by the government officials and health workers at the Chennai International Airport at 8pm (local time).
The Phase 2++, which will begin on June 9, will have 14 more services to carry Indians to various destinations of India till June 23.
The first flight will be to Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh followed by Kozhikode and Kochi.
"More flights have been kept for South Indian destinations as people from this region constitute the major share of the diaspora", an embassy official has clarified.
Passenger lists for all the flights as part of the Vande Bharat mission will be finalised by the embassy on the basis of information received by it. Priority will be given to medical emergency cases, pregnant women, workers in distress, senior citizens as well as to other Indian nationals who are stranded in difficult situations.
"The embassy will be contacting the short-listed people for each flight directly through email/telephone. The embassy will then share the list of short-listed people with Air India and all such people will be contacted by Air India for booking of tickets."
The cost of tickets will have to be borne by the passengers themselves and air tickets will be issued by the airline only to short listed persons. All passengers are required to confirm acceptance of all conditions of travel, including quarantine requirements in India as well as health requirements in order to board the flight.
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