Indians stranded in West Asian city who landed in Mumbai yesterday say things weren’t what news channels were making them out to be
Nirav Modi (left) and his family, who arrived in the city from Dubai on Tuesday. Pics/By Special Arrangement
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Mumbai airport on Tuesday afternoon. This was one of the first few commercial flights that managed to arrive at the city airport from the West Asian city amid the conflict in the region and the subsequent spate of flight cancellations due to airspace restrictions. Passengers claimed that they had been told that six daily flights from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to India had begun, and the count would increase in the coming days.
(From left) Shravani Joshi, tour coordinator; A flier who arrived on the same Emirates flight that landed at Mumbai airport
As per a Ministry of Civil Aviation notice, arrangements are being made to bring back passengers. IndiGo announced four special flights from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 3 for customers whose flights were cancelled. Air India shared on X that, for the first time, a flight of the airline carrying 149 passengers had arrived from West Asia to New Delhi and the airline is set to bring back 900 stranded individuals across three flights on March 4. SpiceJet has announced a total of six flights till March 5 from Fujairah, UAE, to India.
Passengers’ Voices
Reshma, passenger
‘I booked a fresh flight ticket on Monday, and luckily it was not cancelled. The ticket was also priced reasonably. I was in Dubai on personal business, staying in a hotel. The situation was normal there. Only the streets seemed less crowded than usual. The skies also seemed normal, but we learnt later that missiles had been intercepted’
Nirav Modi, flier
‘I was staying in Dubai with my family. We had a flight prior to this one, but that was cancelled. So we checked with the airline constantly and managed to receive the rescheduled tickets for this flight’
Shravani Joshi, tour coordinator
‘I was supposed to fly back with my group on February 28, but flights were cancelled, so I wasn’t able to. The on-ground situation in Dubai seemed pretty normal to me. At least it was nothing like some Indian TV news channels were portraying it to be’
13.55PM
Time Emirates flight from Dubai landed in city on Tuesday
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