First phase of repatriation flights ends, second to begin from Wednesday

KATHMANDU, JULY 12

The first phase of repatriating Nepalis stranded in different countries due to the COVID-19 has concluded today. According to the COV- ID-19 Crisis Management Centre (CCMC), a total of 26,396 Nepalis were evacuated from 24 countries in the last one month. The repatriation flights had started from June 10.

Among all people repatriated, 986 passengers arrived today from six destinations.

According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) repatriated 144 passengers from Bahrain and 264 from Japan today. Meanwhile, Himalaya Airlines evacuated 154 passengers from Saudi Arabia, 108 from the Philippines and 156 passengers from Malaysia. Similarly, Fly Dubai brought home 160 passengers from United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Along with passengers Himalaya Airlines also brought back two dead bodies each from Saudi Arabia and Malaysia today.

Amid this two domestic flights were also conducted today. Simrik Air and Manang Heli conducted flights to and from Butwal and Surki, respectively.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the CCMC held today has announced that the second phase of repatriation flights will begin from Wednesday.

As per Mahendra Prasad Guragain, a total of 42 flights have been scheduled from July 15 to July 21 for the second phase of repatriation.

According to him, NAC will conduct four flights, and Air Arabia and Fly Dubai will conduct one flight each from the UAE on July 15.

Similarly, NAC and Himalaya Airlines will both conduct three flights each from Saudi Arabia on July 16. On July 17, NAC will conduct two flights from Bahrain, Himalaya Airlines will conduct two flights from Qatar and Jazeera Airways will conduct two flights from Kuwait.

Meanwhile, on July 18, NAC will conduct one flight each from the UAE and Qatar while Himalaya Airlines will conduct two flights, and Air Arabia and Fly Dubai will conduct one flight each from the UAE.

Similarly, NAC, Himalaya Airlines and Malindo Air will conduct two flights each from Malaysia on July 19.

Likewise, both NAC and Himalaya Airlines will conduct three flights each from Qatar on July 20. Finally, on July 21, NAC, Himalaya Airlines and Malindo Air will conduct two flights each from Malaysia.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on July 13, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.