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GURUGRAM, August 17, 2020: SpiceJet, India’s favourite airline and the largest air cargo operator operated its maiden long-haul wide-body charter flight to Italy today using an Airbus A330 Neo aircraft. The airline repatriated 264 Italians from New Delhi to Rome and will bring back 186 Indian nationals to Delhi stranded in Italy on its return journey.
The flight departed from New Delhi at 5.05 a.m. IST and is scheduled to reach Rome at 8.35 a.m. (local time). The return flight from Rome will take-off at 8.30 a.m. (local time) on August 18, 2020. The airline had earlier operated long-haul charter flights from Amsterdam to Bengaluru & Hyderabad and from Delhi to Toronto.
Shilpa Bhatia, Chief Commercial Officer, SpiceJet, said, “Seeing people reunite with their families is a great motivation for us at SpiceJet and these long-haul repatriation flights are huge milestones in our journey and efforts to get people back to their families.”
SpiceJet has played a key role in repatriating Indians and foreign nationals during these difficult times. The airline has operated over 575 charter and Vande Bharat flights to help repatriate close to 93,500 stranded Indian citizens and foreign nationals to and from countries such as Canada, Philippines, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Netherlands, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Maldives, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Sri Lanka.
Amidst the greatest crisis ever to hit global aviation, SpiceJet has emerged as India’s No. 1 cargo company. The airline has operated over 5600 cargo flights and transported over 31000 tons of cargo – this is more than double of all domestic airlines combined together – carrying medicines and medical equipment and fruits and vegetables to all corners of India and the world since March 25, 2020.
The airlines’ international cargo network now spans over 41 international destinations that include Rome, Almaty, Abu Dhabi, Baghdad, Bahrain, Bangkok, Bishkek, Cambodia, Cairo, Cebu, Chad, Colombo, Dhaka, Doha, Dubai, Guangzhou, Ho Chi Minh, Hong Kong, Huangzhou, Incheon, Jakarta, Kabul, Kathmandu, Khartoum, Kyrgyzstan, Kuala Lumpur, Kuwait, Male, Myanmar, Shanghai, Singapore, Sharjah, Sulaymaniyah, Tashkent, Ukraine, among others. The airline has also been actively using Ras Al-Khaimah airport as a hub for its cargo operations.
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