Sadly, it has taken the current Covid-19 related pandemic and global travel restrictions to materialize the long-cherished dream of direct flights between New Zealand and India as the first charter flight to bring stranded kiwis home landed in New Delhi in the early hours of Thursday, April 23.
The Air New Zealand’s Special flight NZ 1954 took off from Auckland Airport at 11 a.m. (NZ Time) on Wednesday, April 22 and landed at New Delhi International Airport, Terminal 3 in the early morning hours of Thursday, April 24 (NZ Time) after a non-stop travel of 15.5 hours.
The Air New Zealand’s Special flight NZ 1954 took off from Auckland Airport at 11 a.m. (NZ Time) on Wednesday, April 22 and landed at New Delhi International Airport, Terminal 3 in the early morning hours of Thursday, April 24 (NZ Time) after a non-stop travel of 15.5 hours.
The return flight is scheduled to depart from New Delhi at 2.30 a.m. Friday, April 24 and it is likely that that would also be a direct flight back home.
Although, this is not a moment to read too much from the events happening in the current unprecedented environment of complete lockdown in a vast majority of countries around the world, yet it brings some satisfaction to see a long held dream come to reality, even if for ferrying stranded Kiwis back home.
At least, it demonstrates that capability was never a challenge in running a direct flight between the two countries.
The question was always about market viability and the intent of the key commercial players (Air New Zealand/Singapore Airlines or Air India) operating in the route.
Anyway, the post-Covid-19 world, as we are told by many experts busy in crystal-grazing the future, is going to be remarkably different from what we left before going into the lockdown, especially with our border closure likely to remain in place, and so the likely continuation of global travel restrictions.
In fact the future of the entire international aviation industry is also unclear in the immediate future, despite our collective wishful desire to return to normalcy at the earliest.
Yet it is the presence of capability (operating direct flights over long distances) that is important, as the Covid-19 affected world tells us that intentions can change dramatically.
In that light this Air NZ special direct flight to India augurs a lot of hope for the future, especially for the broader Kiwi-Indian community and the business travellers who have always batted for a direct flight between the two destinations, even if starting conservatively twice of thrice in a week before operating in full capacity.
The return flight from New Delhi scheduled for April 24
The special flight will remain parked in New Delhi till the time special busses arranged by the local NZ High Commission to India bring stranded Kiwis from different nearby destinations before departing New Delhi in the early hours of Friday, April 24.
Second expressions of interests for the next Mumbai flight sent
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s designated travel agent has started making contacts who have earlier expressed their interest for the Mumbai flight. The expressions of interest will only be open until 7.30 am IST(2 pm NZT) on Thursday, April 23.
“The order of preference to be prioritised for seats will be NZ citizens, NZ permanent residents and then the third country nationals will be considered in the event that there are unfilled seats,” an email letter sent out to stranded Kiwis said.
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