Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has made public a one-month schedule for regular and chartered international flights starting from September 2, nearly six months after international flights were suspended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministry said that a total of 57 regular flights and 27 chartered international flights have been allowed to operate between September 2 and September 30. After that the ministry will again take decision as the situation evolves.
Malindo Air, Malaysian Air, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and Himalaya Airlines will be conducting three, two, four and four flights, respectively.
Similarly, Turkish Air has been permitted to operate four flights from Istanbul, while Korean Air and China Southern have also been allowed to operate four flights each from Seoul and Guangzhou, respectively, in the given period.
In case of flights from United Arab Emirates (UAE), Air Arabia will conduct three flights from Sharjah; Fly Dubai and NAC will be conducting three and eight flights, respectively, from Dubai; while Himalaya Airlines will conduct four flights from Abu Dhabi. Qatar Airways will conduct four flights from Doha and Air China will conduct two flights from Chengdu, China.
NAC will conduct two flights from Hong Kong and two flights from Japan. Similarly, Himalaya Airlines will be conducting four flights from Chongqing in China.
Himalaya Airlines will be conducting 10 chartered flights. Among them, the airline will evacuate Nepalis via four flights each from Doha and Dammam, while one flight each will be conducted from Maldives and Kuwait.
NAC will conduct a total of 11 flights. Of which, three will be from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, five from Doha in Qatar and one flight each from Dammam, Kuwait and Riyadh. Meanwhile, Jazeera Airways will conduct four flights from Kuwait and SalamAir will conduct two flights from Oman.
According to MoCTCA, airline operators can carry only those passengers who have PCR negative report from the test conducted within 72 hours of flight time. Those passengers who have PCR negative report can directly go home and will have to stay in home quarantine for 14 days. Local COVID-19 Crisis Management Centre, under the local governments, will monitor those passengers staying in home quarantine.