Rescue Ops: Delhi-bound AI flight from Romania to arrive Sunday morning

New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS) Tata Group-led Air India's flight from Bucharest, Romania which is bringing back stranded Indians will arrive back to New Delhi on Sunday morning.

Accordingly, the flight from Bucharest took off with 250 Indian nationals. It is estimated to arrive at IGIA around 3 a.m., on Sunday morning.

Besides, Hungary's Budapest to Delhi flight is expected to land at IGIA around 8.30 a.m.

On Saturday, AI's Bucharest to Mumbai flight with 219 passengers landed back at 7.50 p.m.

The airline on late Friday night said it will mount direct flights to Romania and Hungary to bring back stranded Indians, who managed to find their way out of the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine.

Notably, Romania and Hungary share land border with Ukraine.

Many Indian nationals including students have made their way into these countries from Ukraine.

Accordingly, Air India operated two flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbai to Bucharest and Budapest as special government charter flights.

These flights have been mounted on Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft which have capacity of 254 passengers per plane.

"Air India has always been playing a pivotal role, standing by the nation during any crisis and now, inspired by the common mission shared by the Tata group and AI of serving the nation and its people first," the airline had said on Friday late night.

"Our employees are only too eager to respond to the call of our nation, driven by our values and conviction that if we do not do it then who will?"

Earlier Air India was operating direct special flights to Kiev but it had to stop these operations due to a NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) issued over the closure of Ukrainian air space.

In fact, one of Air India's flight bound for Kiev from New Delhi returned to the national capital's IGI Airport after NOTAM was announced at Kiev airport on Thursday.

On Tuesday, the airline had carried out the first of its special flight operations ferrying Indian citizens from Ukraine.

Apart from Air India, other Indian operators were expected to start special flight services to Ukraine.

Last week, the Centre removed the restrictions on the number of flights and seats between India and Ukraine, evidently to facilitate the return of Indian students and professionals stranded in the east European nation due to the ongoing tensions with Russia.