The Ministry of Civil Aviation is carrying out advance planning through online meetings and virtual war room so that no stone remains unturned in linking supply side to demand side and various resources of aviation sector can be optimally utilized in the fight against Covid-19.

MoCA holds CHINTAN meeting at 8 am daily to review planning of the day and progress of previous day. Further, at 3 pm daily MANTHAN meeting is held to review the execution of the day’s planning and check if any modification is required at any stage. In this meeting, forward planning is also done to assess requirement and distribution of resources.

Under Lifeline UDAN initiative of MoCA, 152 cargo flights have been operated till date across the country to transport medical cargo to various parts of India including remote and hilly areas. With support from Air India, Alliance Air, IAF and private airlines, medical supplies of more than 200 tons have been delivered till date during lockdown period.

On 6^th April 2020, Lifeline UDAN flights carried ICMR kits, HLL consignments and other essential cargo to several North Eastern areas and also to Central and Eastern states. The details are as below:

Life line 1 (IAF)  Delhi- Ranchi- Patna - Jorhat- Lengpui – Imphal - Dimapur -Guwahati transported consignment of ICMR kits for Guwahati (50 kgs.), Consignment of Assam including Red Cross ( 800 kg),Consignment of Meghalaya ( 672 kg),Leftover Consignment of Manipur, Leftover Consignment Nagaland, ICMR consignment of Dibrugarh, Consignment of Mizoram (300 kgs), Consignment of Ranchi (500 kgs.) and ICMR kits for Patna (50 kgs.)

Life line 2  Alliance Air(ATR) : Delhi-Varanasi-Raipur-Hyderabad-Delhi  carried consignment of ICMR kits for Varanasi (50 kgs.), ICMR kits for Raipur (50 kgs.), ICMR kits for Hyderabad (50 kgs.), ICMR kits for Vijayawada (50 kgs.) and Consignment of Hyderabad ( 1600 kg)

Life line 3  Air India (A 320)  : Mumbai-Bangalore-Chennai-Mumbai transported consignments of Ministry of Textile, HLL consignment for Bangalore, HLL consignment for Chennai

Life line 4 :  Spice Jet SG (7061)  Delhi-Chennai carried ICMR consignment for Chennai

Life line 5  : AI charter(A 320)  Delhi -Dehradun carried  ICMR consignment for Dehradun

Date wise break up is as below:

* Air India and IAF collaborated for Ladakh, Kargil, Dimapur, Imphal, Guwahati,Chennai, Ahmedabad, Patna, Jorhat, Lengpui, Mysuru, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Jammu, Srinagar, Chandigarh and Port Blair.

• Hubs feeding to spokes at Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Agartala, Aizwal, Dimapur, Imphal,Jorhat, Lengpui, Mysuru,  Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Ranchi, Srinagar, Port Blair, Patna, Cochin, Vijaywada, Ahmedabad, Jammu, Kargil, Ladakh, Chandigarh  and Goa.

INTERNATIONAL

•  An air bridge between Shanghai & Delhi established. First cargo flight of Air India operated on 4 April 2020 and has brought 21 tons of medical equipment. Another sortie being carried out to Hong Kong. Air India will be operating dedicated scheduled cargo flights to China for uplifting of critical medical equipment as per the requirement.

PRIVATE OPERATORS

• Domestic Cargo Operators; Blue Dart, Spicejet and Indigo are operating cargo flights on commercial basis. Spicejet operated 189 cargo flights from 24 March – 6 April 2020 covering a distance of 2,58,210 Kms and carrying 1530.13 Tons of cargo. Out of these 53 were international cargo flights. Blue Dart operated 58 domestic cargo flights covering a distance of 5,51,14 Kms and carrying 862.2 Tons of cargo from 25 March – 6 April 2020. Indigo has also operated 8 cargo flights on 3 – 4 April 2020 covering a distance of 6103 Kms and carrying 3.14 tons of cargo.

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RJ/NG