[EXCLUSIVE] China Airlines charging Indians stranded in Taiwan 6 times the normal airfare
About 90% of these Indians are students and are unable to pay such a high tariff for this charter flight. Many of them have decided to stay back and wait for the repatriation Air India flight, which the Indian government has not sent even once.
NEW DELHI/TAIPEI: Hundreds of Indians with the majority being students are left at the mercy of China Airlines for evacuating them from Taiwan to India as the Indian government has failed to arrange for even a single repatriation Air India flight for them ever since the lockdown was clamped in India in March.
The China Airlines that operates non-stop flights between Taipei and New Delhi has quoted a hefty airfare of 45,000 NTD (Taiwanese Dollar) per person, which comes to about 114,000 INR. The normal single-trip tariff for this route comes to around 20,000 INR.
“It’s a double whammy for us. On one side we are being forced to pay for the extended accommodation and other expenses for over three months as we got stuck in Taipei because of lockdown and cancellation of international flights in India. Now we are being asked to pay through our nose for the China Airlines charter flight at 45,000 NTD, which is 1.14 lakh in Indian rupees. I generally pay 28,000 INR for the round trip between Delhi and Taipei,” Ishu Jain, a youngster from Delhi who had gone to Taiwan for a leisure trip in March but got stranded there since then.
The India Taipei Association (ITA) – a representative body of the Indian government in Taipei, is negotiating with China Airlines through an agency for a charter flight for the stranded Indians who are about 250 in number.
Preetha Vasudevan, Assistant Director, ITA said in a mail sent to the stranded Indians, “ITA is facilitating a China Airlines Charter Flight by Friendship Travel Service Company Limited from Taipei to Delhi for the stranded Indian nationals. The flight is tentatively scheduled to depart from Taipei on 07 July 2020…..The price of the ticket is 45,000 NTD per person.”
The stranded Indians in Taiwan told Asian Community News (ACN) Network that majority of the stuck there are students who are in miserable conditions and are running out of funds. Many of them living in domes have been asked to leave and make alternate arrangements on their own.
According to sources, the proposed July 7 flight was postponed as the ITA did not receive the required minimum of 135 bookings from the Indians. It happened so because the majority of those stranded are students and cannot afford such a high airfare. The ITA is reported to have postponed the flight schedule to July 12 in anticipation that it will get the required minimum of 135 bookings to operate China Airlines flight from Taipei to New Delhi.
Many of the Indians are skeptical whether the China Airlines would get the requisite approval from the concerned authorities to operate flight to India because of the ongoing tension between India and China at the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, and their money could get stuck with the booking agency.
“We wonder why the Indian government has not allowed even a single repatriation Air India flight for Indians stuck here, and the name of Taiwan did not figure in any of the three phases of the operation. They have operated these flights to neighboring Japan, Korea, Indonesia, and other countries but not for Taiwan, lamented another Indian,” exclaimed another Indian stuck in Taiwan.
Anurag Srivastava, the Spokesperson, Ministry of External Affairs, India tweeted on Friday evening, “A record 5 lakh + Indians returned safely to India till date, under the #VandeBharatMission, a massive operation which is being carried out with the active support & cooperation of Indian Missions abroad, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Home Ministry and state governments.”
When contacted on Friday, Preetha Vasudevan did not respond to the call by ACN for the ITA side of the story.
Since India and Taiwan do not have diplomatic relations, and nor have an embassy on either side of the countries, ITA coordinates for the issues pertaining to Indians in Taiwan, and has also been authorized to provide all consular and passport services.
ITA was established in Taipei in 1995 to promote interactions between India and Taiwan and to facilitate business, tourism, culture, science & technology, and people-to-people exchanges.
