India news: Airlines restart limited Middle East operations

Partial flight operations resumed between key airports of the Middle East and India on Tuesday, reports said, as air travel disruptions continued with the fighting across the Middle East entering a fourth day. 

Millions of people from South Asia live and work in countries in the Middle East.

Indian carriers have announced relief flights for passengers stranded in the region. 

IndiGo, the country’s biggest airline, said it would operate four return flights from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, as part of efforts to "progressively normalize" operations between the countries. 

Air India Express also said it would resume flights to and from Oman's capital Muscat from Tuesday.

Meanwhile, operations to and from Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates continue to remain suspended, the airlines said.

On Monday night, some of the first flights from Dubai and Abu Dhabi began landing in India, bringing relief to stranded passengers and their families. 

An Etihad Airlines flight from Abu Dhabi landed at Terminal 3 of Delhi’s main Indira Gandhi International Airport.

Another Emirates flight reached Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. 

Other flight services also landed safely in Bengaluru, Chennai and Kochi.

But major flight disruptions continued asIran continued to trade strikes with the US and Israeland Israel also reported trading fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Some 80 international flights were cancelled at the Delhi airport on Tuesday morning, Indian news agency PTI reported. 

An advisory from the airport cautioned travellers about delays and flight schedule adjustments. 

On Monday, the Mumbai airport saw a total of 116 flights being cancelled.