A 62-year-old passenger died yesterday (30 July) on a Mongolian Government chartered flight from Australia’s largest city, Sydney. The second direct flight by MIAT, Mongolian airlines has repatriated 625 Mongolians stranded in Australia due to the coronavirus lockdown. According to officials, the Mongolian man died of a chronic disease unrelated to the coronavirus infection. He was among 38 elderly people who had been included on the charter flight Sydney-Cebu-Ulaanbaatar. The man had gone to Australia at the end of 2019 to visit his child who is studying in the country.

Some 1200 Mongolians stranded in Australia have applied to return home; around 300 of them are elderly people aged above 60.

On 6 June, MIAT, Mongolian airlines conducted the first ever direct passenger flight from Ulaanbaatar to Sydney. A total of 150 elderly Mongolians have returned with the two charter flights.