Image credits: Mint
Air India Express has operated the primary flight from the country with fully vaccinated crew on 18th June, 2021 on Delhi – Dubai sector. The pilots and therefore the cabin crew of IX 191, which took faraway from Delhi at 10.40 AM, had received both doses of their COVID-19 vaccine. Capt. D R Gupta and Capt. Alok Kumar Nayak, captained the flight with cabin crew members namely, Venkat Kella, Praveen Chandra, Pravin Chougle and Manisha Kamble. An corresponding crew which operated the return flight IX 196, on Dubai – Jaipur – Delhi sector.
Before going on board the airline gave a statement which mentioned that, “We have vaccinated most of our eligible crew members and frontline staff not only to mark their safety and health but also to make our passengers feel safe and assure as they fly safe with us.”
The statement also added that, “As we are operating the country’s first flight with fully-vaccinated crew, it’s going to be remembered that it had been Air India Express to be operated as India’s first-ever Vande Bharat Mission flight which touched down on Indian soil on 7th May 2020 carrying passengers from Abu Dhabi. And now we are happy that our teams by now are shielded with the protection of the vaccines.”
The Airline has been a part of the Vande Bharat Mission, the most important civilian evacuation exercise within the world undertaken by the govt of India within the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak last year. Air India Express alone operated 7005 VBM flights carrying a complete of 1.63 million passengers till last month.
Recently Vistara operated India’s first flight with pilots and cabin crew fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The special flight UK963 departed Delhi International Airport on June 16 at 8:50 AM and arrived at Mumbai Airport at 11:10 AM. Vistara has said that it plans to work more such flights within the coming days as their number of fully vaccinated staff increases.