The Government on Tuesday said that it has scheduled about 58 flights on March 4 to the Middle East amid the escalating regional tensions.
"Special arrangements are being made to facilitate the movement of stranded passengers, with airlines deploying additional capacity where required and coordinating closely with foreign aviation authorities and Indian missions abroad to ensure safe and orderly passenger movement.
"A total of 24 flights are being operated by Indian carriers today. In addition, Emirates and Etihad have operated 9 flights from the Gulf in the last 24 hours," the statement by the civil aviation ministry read.
The ministry said that Indian carriers have undertaken calibrated adjustments to their schedules, with long-haul and ultra long-haul operations being progressively resumed through alternative routings that avoid restricted airspace.
"Indian carriers are further planning 58 flights on 4th March, including 30 by IndiGo and 23 by Air India and Air India Express. Foreign carriers operating between India and the Gulf region are also undertaking limited operations, subject to operational and airspace considerations," it said.
Meanwhile, SpiceJet said that it would operate eight special flights from the UAE on March 4 to bring back Indian nationals who were stranded due to the airspace disruption in the Middle East.
All eight flights will operate from Fujairah.
Four will be to Delhi. Three to Mumbai and one to Kochi, the airline said on Wednesday.
The widespread flight cancellations have led to Indian nationals being stranded in West Asia.
Indigo, meanwhile, is sending repatriation flights to Jeddah and Muscat and said that more flights would be scheduled.
Air India said that it would extend its suspension of most flights to and from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar until midnight on March 4 and said that it would continue to monitor the situation in the middle east.
The moves are being taken after about 357 international flights were cancelled at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai airports.
"Till date, 1,221 flights by Indian carriers and 388 flights by foreign carriers have been cancelled due to the ongoing situation," the ministry said
On Tuesday, 104 flights were cancelled by Indian carriers.
From February 28, as many as 1,117 international flights were cancelled due to the Middle East crisis.
