Around 300 stranded people to fly back to Australia on Tuesday

Around 300 people stranded in India due to the nationwide lockdown will fly back to Australia on Tuesday in a chartered plane, according to a travel agent which has facilitated the bookings. These people would be flying in a Singapore Airlines' aircraft from the national capital to Sydney.

The Australian High Commission in India has been facilitating special flights to fly back people from Australia who are currently stranded in India amid the coronavirus pandemic. Since April 11, some flights have been operated from India to Australia to ferry the stranded people. As many as 300 stranded people from Australia are flying back to their country on Tuesday from New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport, Amit Sharma, whose travel firm Pricebeat made the bookings and arranged the charter aircraft, told PTI from Sydney.

He said the flight would be operated by Singapore Airlines and is scheduled to take off late in the evening on Tuesday. A reply was awaited from a DIAL on the planned flight on Tuesday.

Earlier evacuation flights were flown to Sydney and Melbourne from cities, including New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Those flights were operated by Malyasian carrier Lion Air and Qatar Airways, he added. A total of 2,769 people were flown back to Australia till April 29, when the last two chartered flights were operated from Delhi and Chennai to Australia by the Qatar Airways, as per a Facebook post by Australia in India.

The nationwide lockdown to curb spreading of coronavirus infections started on March 25 and commercial flight operations also remain suspended..