Air India rescue flights start

The first of the 64 Air India and Air India Express flights bringing back stranded Indians will arrive in Kerala from the Gulf with 354 people. The Air India Express flight to Kochi will take off from Abu Dhabi at 4.15 pm and reach its destination at 9.40 pm, while the other to Kozhikode is scheduled to leave Dubai at 5pm and arrive at 10.40 pm, officials said. No flights to Calcutta have been slotted till now. This means that anyone looking to return to the city will have to be ready to go into quarantine for 14 days in the destination where the Air India flight lands. The first batch of passengers travelling by Air India will reach New Delhi from Singapore on May 8, according to the airline’s evacuation schedule. Flight AI-381 from Singapore will reach New Delhi at 11.35am on Friday. The carrier will operate two flights from Riyadh and Dhaka on Friday, which will land at Calicut and New Delhi, respectively. The flight from Singapore has the capacity to carry 250 passengers, an Air India official said. Most of the Air India flights will land in Delhi and Mumbai with some heading for Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore.<br/>