By IANS
Dubai : Air-India and Indian have started a special air fare scheme for Indian expatriates opting to return to India under the three-month amnesty scheme announced by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government, airlines officials said Monday.
While Air India is offering the special fares covering six Indian destinations, officials of Indian said special rates would be applicable to 16 Indian destinations.
Indian amnesty-seekers can take Air India flights to Mumbai and New Delhi from different airports in the UAE at the cost of dirham 590 ($160), to Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode at dirham 690 ($188), to Hyderabad (via Mumbai) at dirham 790 ($215) and Chennai (via Mumbai) at dirham 640 ($174), the Khaleej Times reported.
Last month, the UAE government, in a bid to curb the blatant violation of labour norms, had given three months to all immigrant workers and their employers to regularise their work permits or face heavy penalties.
Abhay Pathak, regional manager of Indian, said that amnesty seekers who would like to fly to other destinations with a connecting flight would be charged only dirham 100 extra.
“We are also planning a special chartered flight to Hyderabad from Dubai,” Pathak said. “Amnesty seekers can buy their tickets from out-pass distributing centres at the Indian consulate as well as from agents,” he added.
Jaishree Ramachandran, regional manager of Air India said: “The special rate tickets are available at the Indian School counter and another counter will soon be opened at the Sharjah Indian Association for the same.”