National carrier Air India has received praise from Pakistan’s Air Traffic Controller (ATC) for the airlines’ efforts and relief work during the Coronavirus pandemic, ANI reported. Senior captains of special flights told ANI that it was a proud moment for Air India crew to hear such praises from Pakistan ATC for their rescue operations to Europe. The airline was operating the flight to provide relief material to Frankfurt at a time when countries have gone for complete lockdown. Not only this, Air India has also helped evacuate European nations who were left stranded in the Indian subcontinent after a nationwide lockdown was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to the report, Karachi’s air control unit welcomed the Air India crew on its way to deliver relief material, and said, “We are proud of you that in a pandemic situation you are operating flights. Goodluck!” Not only this, the report stated that Pakistan’s ATC relayed Tehran about the AI flight’s position and the other details.
Apart from that, in a rare gesture, Iran gave the Air India flight a direct route over the Iranian air space, a pilot informed. Iran has been hesitant in giving access to this direct route as it reserves this particular space for its own defence purposes only. However, in a situation where lakhs of people are victims of the novel Coronavirus, Iran allowed Air India to fly this direct route for almost 1,000 miles. Iranian ATC too, wished the Air India crew well, the report said.
Air India has been running special flights ever since the Coronavirus epidemic broke. Recently, Air India flew out two special flights from Mumbai to help stranded European and Canadian nationals. Prior to this, this Indian airline has also run a flight from Delhi to Tel Aviv to drop Israelis. It has also helped hundreds of Indians stuck in China and Italy return to India.