104 Russian nationals take flight to return home from Kerala
May 21, 2020
Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) [India], May 22 : Kerala Tourism officials on Thursday said that a total of 104 Russian tourists, who had got stuck in the lockdown in wake of the COVID-19, flew back from the state on Thursday.
The special plane of Royal Flight Airlines took off from here to Moscow via Kolkata and Yekaterinburg.
While 75 passengers were staying in different destinations in Kerala, like Varkala near the state capital, the rest of them were held up in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
The operations were coordinated by Ratheesh C Nair, Honorary Consul of the Russian Federation, in Thiruvananthapuram.
The home-bound passengers underwent a mandatory medical check-up and other formalities before boarding the flight.
As many as 2,500 stranded foreign tourists were repatriated from Kerala since the international airports got closed on March 23. They included 232 persons to Germany, 268 to the UK, 112 to France, and 115 to Switzerland.
Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the "state government had taken great care to ensure that the extended stay of the foreigners is convenient and hassle-free".
"The Tourism Department officials were in constant touch with them to extend the best hospitality that Kerala is known for," he said.
"Providing care to tourists held up in the state has been a top priority of the government despite the constraints posed by the lockdown. We are happy to note that all the stranded passengers were taken care in the best possible manner," Rani George, Secretary, Tourism, said. .
