The Iran Air (Homa) Airline sent a passenger plane, with a seating capacity of 270 people, to the Romanian capital, Bucharest, where many of the Iranian nationals who resided in Ukraine are waiting to return to the homeland, Hossein Jahani, the spokesman for the airline’s PR department, said Friday.
“The emergency flight was planned following coordination between Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization and that of Ukraine and after receiving the necessary permits,” Jahani said.
“The number of the passengers will depend on the [number of] the Iranians present at the Bucharest airport, but we will do our utmost to bring the compatriots there back home,” he added.
Days earlier, national flag career Iran Air brought back a first group of 100 Iranian students and other nationals who had fled Ukraine to Poland’s capital of Warsaw.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry said almost all Iranian nationals have left the Ukrainian soil since February 24, when Russia began a ‘special military operation’ in its Western neighbor.
According to official figures, some 4,200 Iranians were estimated to have resided in Ukraine prior to the war.