IndiGo joins forces with the Indian Air Force (IAF) to evacuate Indian nationals, mostly students, stranded in Ukraine as the Indian continues to recover its stranded citizens.  

As part of an ongoing governmental initiative known as ‘Operation Ganga’, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has scheduled a total of 46 evacuation flights to bring back Indian nationals from Ukraine’s western neighbor-countries, including Romania, Hungary, and Poland. 

Early in the morning on March 2, 2022, the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) military transport aircraft, the C-17 Globemaster, took off for Romania (OTP) from its station near Delhi on a repatriation mission.  

It has also been announced that on the same day Indian low-cost carrier Indigo is scheduled to serve six special flights with its Airbus A321 jet. Two flights will be operated from Delhi (DEL) to Budapest (BUD), in Hungary, and a further two will be served from Delhi (DEL) to Rzeszow (RZE) in Poland. The remaining two scheduled flights will take-off from Mumbai (BOM) and are destined for Bucharest (OTP), Romania.  

All six flights will operate via Istanbul (IST), in Turkey. 

Four Indian commercial airlines, including IndiGo, Air India, Air India Express, and SpiceJet are also scheduled to operate at least 46 evacuation flights until March 8, 2022. 

The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation has counted that there are roughly 13,000 Indian nationals currently stranded in various parts of Ukraine. It is estimated that 3,000 are in Kharkiv, located in eastern Ukraine, a major city, which is under heavy attack by Russian troops.