By IANS,
New Delhi: Air India Wednesday said it has brought back 2,200 Indians from Tripoli, the capital of strife-torn Libya, since it began evacuation operations Feb 26.
“Air India has successfully operated special flights so far to evacuate stranded Indians from Libya. These special ‘ferry’ flights to Tripoli brought back around 2,200 passengers to Delhi,” said an Air India spokesperson.
According to him, the flag-carrier has operated around six special flights so far, while three flights were sent to Tripoli early Wednesday and are expected to return to Delhi later in the night.
The national carrier has always lived up to expectations and fulfilled its obligation to the country in times of an emergency situation like the Gulf-war evacuation, Bhuj earthquake, the tsunami and the recent 2010 flash floods in Leh, he stressed.
Air India is currently carrying out the evacuation by two aircraft – an Airbus A-330 and a Boeing 747 – which operate from Terminal 2 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport.
Meanwhile, private airline Jet Airways will operate its first flight to Tripoli later Wednesday.
“We would be able to fly to Tripoli by midnight (Wednesday) from Delhi after all the clearances and (if the) passenger list is sorted out,” a senior airline official told IANS.
According to him, the company will operate a Boeing 737-800 aircraft from Delhi to the Libyan capital, with a passenger capacity of about 178.