Air India plans special flights to London

Air India is planning to conduct multiple special flights to London between April 4 and April 7 to fly out foreigners stranded in the country amid the lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus, said senior officials on Thursday (2).

India is under a 21-day lockdown till April 14 and all domestic and international commercial passenger flights have been suspended for this time period.

However, cargo flights and flights specially permitted by the aviation regulator DGCA can operate during this time period.

Senior Air India officials said the national carrier will conduct four flights on Delhi-London route between April 4 and April 7.

The officials added that the national career will also be conducting flights on Mumbai-London route on April 5 and April 7.

Air India has already conducted special flights to Israel and Germany to fly out foreigners stranded in India amid the lockdown.

The acting British high commissioner to India, Jan Thompson, said: "We will publish the exact timings and departure locations of flights from India on our travel advice and social media channels the moment they are confirmed."

The high commission had earlier warned of "false rumours of flights circulating".

"Don’t get taken in by scams," it warned.