Mumbai, Mar 23: Civil aviation secretary K Roy Paul today left for Kuwait by a scheduled Air-India Boeing 747-200 flight (AI 853) for a first-hand assessment of the situation in view of the US-led strikes in Iraq and to interact with the Indian community there. Commenting on his visit, Paul, who is also the Air-India chairman, said he would reassure the Indian community that the Centre was standing by them.
Additional capacity would be mounted by both AI and Indian Airlines (IA) if the scheduled services prove inadequate, he added.
Meanwhile, 327 more Indians, including 14 infants, returned here early this morning by a Boeing flight.
Over 80 seats were vacant, clearly indicating that the capacity available on the Kuwait-India sector was much more that the number of Indians wanting to come home, an AI spokesman said.
So far, a total of 3,200 Indians have returned home by scheduled and special flights operated by Air India and Indian Airlines, apart from flying in by Kuwait Airways, with which AI has a code-sharing agreement, the spokesman added. Bureau Report