Hyderabad: All plans of UK NRIs fall flat as flights cancelled

Hyderabad: NRIs from UK who planned to reach home country for Christmas and New Year are utterly disappointed as the Indian aviation ministry announced suspension of flights between the two countries following detection of a mutant strain of Coronavirus in Britain. The suspension of flights from UK has come into effect from the midnight of December 22.

"It's a cry foul moment for my entire family. We were excited to celebrate our only big festival Christmas together with my elder son, but he is unable to reach us. It's been two years that we are waiting for him like never before," says R Samuel, Resident of Kavuri Hills, Madhapur.

Speaking on the difficulties faced by the passengers who booked their flights online, Sandeep Kumar, travel agent from Make My Trip, Paradise, said, "Following the guidelines from aviation ministry of India, The airline has suspended the flights to contain the spread of Coronavirus strain which is said to be more dangerous than coronavirus. Hence, we are requesting passengers to wait till we present our further notice and the airlines might allow passengers to reschedule their flights to another date."

"We had a couple of passengers flying through Air Vistara in the third week of December but as the flights were suspended, the passengers requested to reschedule it for another flexible day in the first week of January. However, passengers prefer to fly through Vandhe matharam Mission," said another travel agent Santhosh from Jubilee Hills.

Currently, Air India and Vistara airlines are allowing one-time rescheduling without any of the usual charges. For any change thereafter, usual charges on cancellation, rescheduling and fare difference will apply. Moreover, Indians stuck in the UK can't reach from other countries through connecting flights too, such as from Germany or France, with whom India has the air bubble travel arrangement. The government prohibits airlines, operating from a non-UK city, from allowing any passenger from Britain to fly to India, after the December 22 until the further notice and it left families separated to celebrate the New Year.