As the Manager of the Sasken’s Travel Desk, we had the unique responsibility of helping Sasians stranded in various geographies to get back home safely during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Our first experience was with a colleague who had completed his assignment in Japan and we just had 24 hours to bring him home before the suspension of all flights from March 22. Various departments swung into action providing all clearances ensuring his safe and timely return to India.
There were innumerable challenges like the constantly changing global rules and regulations, but we were able to navigate them successfully. Through our persistent efforts, we were able to get a couple of colleagues to return from the USA and the UK through the Vande Bharat Air India service in June. Another employee had come to Bengaluru from Japan in February for a project and was stuck in a hotel room throughout the lockdown. Once the lockdown was relaxed, she stayed with friends before we helped her board a domestic flight to her hometown, followed by a repatriation flight to Japan. Our most memorable success story was helping a colleague travel from the UK to Chennai with his family, including his four-month-old infant daughter. We are also relentlessly pursuing the return of two engineers who are awaiting confirmation on repatriation flights from Belgium and the USA.
The grit of our employees and the support from Sasken have been crucial towards our continuous ability to ensure everyone’s safe arrival home during this pandemic.
