The GMR group will charter an aircraft to transport over 100 Maldivian students — who are studying in the strife-torn Egyptian Cairo — from Mumbai to the Maldivian capital Male. The Maldivian students, about 110 in number, are expected to be on an Air India flight from Cairo to Mumbai that will reach Mumbai early on Wednesday morning. The GMR group — which operates the Male airport — will then charter an aircraft, probably on Thursday itself, to transport the Maldivian students from Mumbai to Male. The GMR group heads consortia that operate and manage both the New Delhi IGI as well as the Hyderabad airports.
When contact, sources in the GMR group confirmed the development and said that a flight would be chartered “to show support for the Maldivian people in their hour of need”. A Kingfisher Airlines aircraft is likely to be chartered for the purpose from New Delhi.
The GMR group had earlier been awarded the contract for modernising the Male airport and had already begun operating the airport there. The GMR group is also constructing an additional terminal building at the Male airport.
“The GMR group is a big contributor to the Maldives economy and such a gesture was needed to show the Maldivian people that we support them at all times including in their hour of need,” said a GMR group source. Meanwhile, national carrier Air India announced that it had operated another flight from Mumbai to Cairo on Wednesday afternoon as a “ferry flight” and that all passengers travelling on the return leg from Cairo to Mumbai will pay the same fares as on the previous two flights. The fare being charged for Air India is about `40,000 for adults on the Cairo-Mumbai special flight which Air India again described as an unscheduled commercial flight. Air India has said that the fares charged would ensure that the airline only recovers its costs of the commercial operations.