An estimated 25,000 Canadian passport holders and PRs remained in India at the time the lockdown to help curb spread of Covid-19 was imposed and as international flights petered out, there was no opportunity for them to return to Canada. But Canada’s recently announced first 6 flights at a steep cost of $2900 for one-way return to Canada  is not particularly attractive to the large contingent of Indo-Canadians stranded in India with many opting to wait and see after India lifts it’s lockdown on April 14.

TORONTO – An estimated 25,000 Canadian passport holders and PRs remained in India at the time the lockdown to help curb spread of Covid-19 was imposed and as international flights petered out, there was no opportunity for them to return to Canada. 

But Canada’s recently announced first 6 flights at a steep cost of $2900 for one-way return to Canada  is not particularly attractive to the large contingent of Indo-Canadians stranded in India with many opting to wait and see after India lifts it’s lockdown on April 14.

"I'm happy that we're getting the flights, I’m happy that we're getting home, however the cost which they're expecting us to pay - it's outstanding," Melissa Chadha, a Canadian stuck in India with her husband and infant child, told CTV News Tuesday. "We feel that we're kind of bullied into having to pay this extra money."

A spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada explained that this was the lowest price Canada was able to obtain from the airline providing the flights, which they said was not a Canadian airline.

They said the flights are more expensive right now because of the exceptional circumstances, not because of any profit for the airlines, and that the government has a $5,000 loan available to those who need it to cover the costs of their return. Canadians trapped abroad are also being assisted in other countries, including Peru, Spain, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador and Guatemala.

However, that $5,000 loan ultimately has to be repaid — and passengers are only able to access it once they've exhausted all other options.

The Canadian government said this week that it will organise half-a-dozen flights home from India for its citizens and permanent residents who have been stranded due to the 21-day national lockdown .

The arrangement came about after discussions between the two governments including between India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Canadian counterpart Francois-Philippe Champagne.

 There will be six flights: Of these four will depart from Delhi and the other two from Mumbai. The first of these flights will depart on Saturday and the last will leave India on Tuesday.

An estimated 25,000 Canadian passport holders and PRs remained in India at the time the lockdown to help curb spread of Covid-19 was imposed and as international flights petered out, there was no opportunity for them to return to Canada.

But that changed this week, as Champagne tweeted, “We have facilitated a series of commercial flights from Delhi and Mumbai for Canadian travellers stranded in India to return home.” These flights are not being operated by Air Canada but by a foreign airline. The price for the ticket is also steep, at CA$ 2900 for the one-way journey.

The flights will be via London and those who will be allowed to board them are Canadian citizens, PRs, or their closest relatives like spouses, parents, children or grand-children. Canada continues to impose a ban on the arrival of foreign nationals, which was announced in mid-March by its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the world.

All those who return to Canada will have to place themselves into self-isolation for a mandatory period of 14 days.

Several persons have petitioned the Canadian government to make these arrangements including Ritu Sihota, a resident of Mississauga in the Greater Toronto Area, who collected more than 15,000 signatures for her effort. In that petition, she wrote, “I am calling on Justin Trudeau to get these stranded Canadian back onto Canadian soil ASAP.”