Bahrain-based community organisations have facilitated the return of more than 3,000 stranded Indian expatriates to their homeland since the Iranian attacks began.
An additional 282 passengers are set to fly to Kochi today on the final Gulf Air flight facilitated by Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS).
“We have helped around 1,500 community members return home, and have another flight scheduled which will carry approximately 282 passengers,” BKS president P V Radhakrishna Pillai told the GDN.
“Now that Gulf Air is directly selling tickets and has expanded its network from Dammam, we don’t think we need to facilitate any more flights, but we will assess the situation in the coming days.”
In addition to the 1,500 BKS community members, Nav Bharat has facilitated the return of 860 passengers and Kannada Sangha Bahrain organised three flights to carry home a total of 399 expatriates.
The Annai Tamil Mandram and the Bharathi Association, in collaboration with the Indian Club, also carried 192 passengers each, on two flights to Chennai.
Priority on these flights was given to the elderly, pregnant women, children, medical patients, and those stranded in Bahrain on visit visas.
Bahrain’s national carrier has a temporary network operating via Dammam of more than 10 destinations, including London Heathrow, Bangkok, Mumbai, Chennai, Manila, Cairo, Frankfurt, Paris, Casablanca, and Nairobi.
In addition, Gulf Air announced yesterday that repatriation flights from Dammam to London Heathrow will continue until April 11, while flights from Dammam to Mumbai, Nairobi, Cairo, Chennai, Bangkok, Casablanca, and Manila will run until April 30.
The airline will also provide services to Dhaka, Kochi, New Delhi and Trivandrum until April 3.
Passengers took shuttle buses to Dammam and then flew to Dhaka and Kochi yesterday, with another flight to the latter scheduled for tomorrow.
Today, there will be a flight operating between New Delhi and Dammam, and tomorrow, passengers will be flying to Trivandrum.
On March 30, the Trivandrum flight will be returning, and on April 1, there will be a flight from Kochi to Dammam.
On April 3, a flight will be headed to and returning from Dhaka.
“These flights are solely intended for passengers travelling to and from Bahrain,” the airline noted, in a statement.
“Local passengers will not be permitted to board or disembark in Dammam, nor will any transit traffic to any other point in the airline’s current network be permitted.
“Gulf Air will also provide transportation between Bahrain and King Fahad International Airport in Dammam for passengers holding confirmed bookings.”
Ticket prices have also changed dramatically since the community organisations began facilitating flights on March 15.
One of the community organisers that spoke with the GDN noted that Gulf Air chartered flights had become more expensive, thus prompting the group’s decision to not facilitate any more flights.
Initially, chartered flights cost between BD280 and BD310 per person inclusive of transportation to Dammam as well as Saudi transit visa.
Now, one-way tickets between Bahrain and Mumbai start at BD367.5 per person, though tickets to Trivandrum start at BD245.200 and Kochi flights start at BD274.500.
Prior to the attacks, round-trip economy tickets to destinations in India ranged from BD100 to BD170.
In addition to rising jet fuel prices, the rise in ticket prices can also be attributed to very limited inbound traffic, thus forcing airlines to recuperate the cost of the trip on a single leg.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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