Air India will operate two special flights to the Cypriot capital of Larnaca on Monday to bring back hundreds of Indian nationals stranded in trouble-torn Lebanon.
Two Boeing 747-400s, with a total capacity of 840, will airlift Indians brought out from Lebanon to Cyprus in Indian Navy ships as part of one of the country's largest civilian evacuation operations overseas -- Operation Sukoon.
The first flight will take off at 0800 IST while the second jet will fly to the Cypriot capital at 1000 IST and both aircraft will return the same day, an Air India spokesman told PTI from Mumbai.
Asked whether the flights will fly back to Mumbai or other destinations, he said it would depend on requirements.
"If there is a plane-load of people belonging to a particular state or region, they could be flown directly to that destination," he said.
The spokesman said the timing of the return of the flights will depend on the arrival of the Indians from Lebanon in Larnaca.
The first batch of 602 people reached India on Saturday after two Air India flights airlifted them to Mumbai and Chennai. While 341 landed in Chennai, 261 flew to Mumbai.
Meanwhile, the warships INS Mumbai and INS Brahmaputra, which were moved to the Mediterranean Sea off the Lebanese coast, today entered Beirut harbour to evacuate the second batch of stranded Indians. As Israel intensified air attacks and mounted limited land incursions into Lebanon, India on Sunday stepped up the evacuation of its stranded nationals from the embattled country by sending in two more warships to pull out another 850 people.
With this the total number of people brought out of Lebanon by sea has risen to 1458. There were an estimated 12,000 Indians in Lebanon before the hostilities erupted.
