AGENCIES / New Delhi
Air India’s return flight from Kabul to Delhi departed on Sunday evening with 129 passengers as Taliban forces entered the national capital of Afghanistan and waited for “peaceful transfer” of power.
Officials of Air India said that there is no plan yet to cancel its Delhi-Kabul-Delhi flight as of now and that it is scheduled to operate on Monday too.
Currently, only Air India is operating flights between India and Afghanistan.
The national carrier operated it Delhi-Kabul leg of the flight (with call sign AI-243) on Sunday afternoon with around 40 passengers, officials said.
Officials said AI-243 departed from Delhi at around 12.45 PM (Indian Standard Time) and had to hover for around one hour above the Kabul airport as it did not get permission to land from the air traffic control (ATC). They stated it was not clear what was the reason for the delay in the permission for landing of AI-243.