NRI hotelier to fly Dubai staff to MIA tomorrow

MANGALURU: Even as two Mangalurean businessmen in Saudi Arabia await permission to fly 167 Kannadigas home, a UAE-based NRI hotelier has completed formalities to put his staffers on the first chartered private flight through SpiceJet to Mangaluru International Airport on June 1.


So far, international flights landing in MIA have been part of the government’s Vande Bharat mission, operated through national carrier

Air India. The flight will leave Ras Al Khaimah at 9.30am UAE time and land in MIA at1.20pm on June1. “The flight will have 177 passengers,” a SpiceJet spokesperson said.

Praveen Shetty, chairman of the Fortune Group of Hotels, said the flight would bring home his Dubai hotel staff and their family members. The employees are from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Kasaragod. “I have also booked three hotels, including two in Udupi, where they can be quarantined,” he said. Shetty is also president of Karnataka Non-Resident Indian Forum .

“My employees have been paid one month’s salary and quarantine arrangements have been made at nominal rates. They will be paying Rs 7,000 each,” Shetty said. “I have not cancelled their visas and will take them back once the pandemic abates and business returns to normal.”

Areportin Khaleej Times said the passengers would include 105 employees and 20 family members. They have all been placed on paid leave as three out of seven Fortune Group hotels in UAE are not operating at the moment. The hotelier has also given one hotel branch as quarantine facility to the UAE authorities.

Rahul Shinde, probationary IAS officer in-charge of Vande Bharat flights, said the Dakshina Kannada district administration has made arrangements to transport 130 of the passengers to Udupi and the remaining 47 to a hotel near MIA.“