UK airlifts 268 stranded foreign nationals

Amid the nation-wide lockdown, the first flight from Kerala to the UK took off on Wednesday evening with 268 tourists who had been stranded in south India since the coronavirus pandemic put a check on public transportation.

The British Airways plane left the state capital at 7.30 pm with London as the destination and Kochi as a stopover to pick up 158 passengers. As many as 110 tourists boarded from here,apress release said on Wednesday night. The passengers includedseven who had tested positive for COVID-19 and were treated successfully in Kochi. They were part of a group of 19 Britons.

This is the third aircraft to repatriate stranded passengers in Kerala from Europe since the lockdown. An Air India aircraft with 232 passengers left for Germany on March 31. Four days later, the second aircraft flew 112 people to France.

Deputy High Commissioner, British Deputy High Commission, Bengaluru, Jeremy Pilmore-Bedford was at the Kochi airport supervising the repatriation operations. Out of the 268tourists, there are a few from Austria, Canada, Portugal, Ireland, Lithuania among others.

The spread of COVID-19 had led Kerala to impose a state-wide shutdown on March 23. The next day, the Union government announced a similar exigency across the country for three weeks and subsequently till May 3. Keralas Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran expressed happiness over facilitating the air travel.

Upholding our spirit of treating guests like gods, we bore the expenses of those who had tested positive for the Coronavirus. Secretary, Kerala Tourism, Rani George said the tourism department had facilitated accommodation and food for those stranded in the state owing to the shutdown. Right from setting up a coronavirus-time helpdesk for foreign tourists a month ago, our hospitality has been exemplary as usual, she added.

Director, Kerala Tourism, P Bala Kiran noted that British nationals continue to top the list of foreign tourists in the state by totalling one-fourth of the visitors from abroad.