UK charters 31 planes to fly back British citizens from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh

The British government has chartered 31 planes to bring back more than 7,000 British nationals from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh amid the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday British Foreign Office announced the arrangement of the flights. 17 of the flights will be operated from India from April 20-April 27 and will carry around 4,000 British citizens.

Another 10 charter flights from Pakistan, will be operated from April 21-April 27 and will bring around 2,500 people.

Four flights from Bangladesh will be operated from April 21-April 27 and will have the capacity to bring home up to 850 passengers.

The Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, "We are working round the clock to get British nationals home. Since the outbreak of coronavirus in Wuhan, we've helped more than a million British citizens return home on various commercial flights – backed up by our work with the airlines and foreign governments to keep flights running."

Our special charter deal with the airlines has enabled us to return thousands more, he added.

Dominic Raab also said, the addition of 31 flights will mean the UK Government has facilitated the return of more than 10,000 British travellers on 55 flights from the region since the coronavirus crisis began.