new delhi the fifth straight day of flight cancellations over europe has sent alarm bells ringing in the aviation ministry as it estimates that 41435 passengers are stuck in delhi and mumbai alone the allindia figure would be higher and the numbers could keep adding up if airlines arent able to restart flights soon the government on its part advised passengers to defer travel to european destinations unless absolutely necessary the advisory issued by the aviation ministry was part of governments multipronged strategy under which talks have been initiated with greece to allow indian carriers to pick up or deboard stranded flyers the aviation ministrys crack team led by secretary m m nambiar and dgca chief nasim zaidi is trying to get rights for indian carriers to fly to a few open airports in southern europe along with the joint secretary in charge of bilaterals agreements that enable intercountry flights prashant sukul the team wants indian carriers to be able to fly passengers to and from places like cairo athens and madrid now with much of europe airspace under the volcanic ash cloud accessibility to the continent is only possible through a combination of railroadandsea links from these placeswe are trying to secure for air india rights to fly via cairo while jet can fly passengers to and from athens madrid is also an option we are in constant touch with euro control for the latest situation of airspace closures nambiar said the ministry is seeking third and fourth freedom rights that will allow ai and jet to fly flyers between india and greece and egypt since a number of flyers stuck in india are facing problems of visa expiry and indians stranded abroad are having similar issues nambiar has requested ministries of foreign affairs and home affairs to help in these issuesis rapid urbanization globally making the earth weaker and more susceptible to natural calamities