783 Nepalis brought home from abroad

KATHMANDU, JUNE 23

A total of 783 Nepalis have been repatriated today from five destinations.

According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), repatriation flights from Qatar, Kuwait, Thailand, Maldives and Australia were conducted today.

Among the five flights, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) conducted three flights. As per TIA, NAC repatriated 78 passengers from Thailand, 143 passengers from Maldives and 258 passengers from Australia.

Himalaya Airlines repatriated 144 passengers from Qatar, while Jazeera Airways repatriated 160 Nepalis from Kuwait. As per TIA, the repatriated passengers were taken to the holding centres by Nepali Army.

Amid this, aircraft of NAC and Himalaya Airlines have departed to Dammam and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, respectively today and will return tomorrow with Nepali passengers from there.

Meanwhile, two other aircraft of Himalaya Airlines have departed for Kuwait and United Arab Emirates for repatriation flights. On Wednesday, repatriation flights from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Turkey have been scheduled, as per Devendra KC, general manager of TIA.

Starting from June 11, the government has been repatriating Nepalis stranded in different countries. Earlier, the government had decided to repatriate around 24,000 stranded Nepalis in the initial phase, however, it is now planning to evacuate only 12,000 passengers. The remaining passengers will be rescued in second phase.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has stated that most of the destinations have lifted lockdowns due to which the number of Nepalis wishing to return home has declined. Thus, the government has revised the number of passengers for repatriation.

In the meantime, five domestic flights were conducted today. Kailash Heli conducted two passenger flights to Khotang and Nuwakot carrying four and three passengers, respectively. Likewise, Manang Heli and Air Dynasty departed for Birgunj and Dharan from Kathmandu carrying three and four passengers, respectively.

Sita Air transported two passengers from Surkhet to Kathmandu today.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 24, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.