Kathmandu, June 10

The government has scheduled a total of 67 flights to repatriate Nepalis stranded in different countries.

A meeting held today at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has prepared a schedule for repatriation flights starting from tomorrow (June 11) to June 25.

Of the total repatriation flights, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will be conducting 24 flights, while Himalaya Airlines will be operating 19 flights and other foreign airlines will conduct 24 flights.

On Thursday, two flights from Kuwait will be coming to Kathmandu carrying Nepalis stranded there. As per Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), two aircraft of Jazeera Airways are scheduled to touchdown here at 11:30 am and 1:30 pm, respectively.

NAC’s wide-body aircraft will repatriate passengers from Dhaka, Bangladesh, on June 14.

Likewise, on June 15, NAC’s wide-body aircraft will repatriate passengers from Maldives while its narrow-body aircraft will repatriate passengers from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On the same day, Himalaya Airlines will bring home passengers from Saudi Arabia on one flight while stranded Nepalis in Cambodia and Singapore will be repatriated on the second flight. On the same day, two flights by foreign airlines have been scheduled — one from Muscat, Oman and the other destination is yet to be decided.

On June 16, NAC will be repatriating passengers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar while one flight of Himalaya Airlines will repatriate Nepalis from Kuwait, and another flight will bring passengers from Sri Lanka and Maldives.

NAC is repatriating passengers from Australia, Thailand and Bahrain, on June 17. The same day, Himalaya Airlines will fly to Bangladesh and Qatar. Foreign airlines will be conducting two repatriation flights — one from the United States and another is yet to be decided.

On June 18, NAC will fly to Saudi Arabia and UAE, while Himalaya Airlines will evacuate Nepalis from Malaysia and Oman. The national flag carrier will fly to Japan and Kuwait, while Himalaya Airlines will fly to Saudi Arabia and Nigeria on June 19.

On June 20, NAC will repatriate Nepali nationals from Cyprus, Malaysia and Qatar, Himalaya Airlines will repatriate passengers from UAE and Bangladesh. The foreign airlines will conduct two flights that day, of which one will be from Europe.

Meanwhile on June 21, NAC will conduct repatriation flight from South Korea and Oman, while Himalaya Airlines will conduct flights from Kuwait and Malaysia. Repatriation flights from Australia and Thailand will be conducted on June 22 by NAC, while Himalaya Airlines will go to Pakistan and Qatar to bring back stranded Nepalis.

NAC will fly to Japan and Maldives, while Himalaya Airlines will fly to Uganda, on June 23. The national flag carrier has flights scheduled for Saudi Arabia and Kuwait on June 24.

Then on June 25, NAC will fly to the United States while Himalaya Airlines will bring back stranded Nepali citizens from Cyprus and Israel.

Meanwhile, the destination of 16 flights scheduled for foreign airlines is yet to be decided. The government has prepared a list of 24,148 Nepalis across 30 different destinations that need to be rescued urgently.

However, the ministry has stated that the schedule might be revised based on the number of passengers. The government has inked an agreement with the airline companies stating the chartered flights will be conducted with only 85 per cent occupancy. Moreover, the passengers must have negative report of either PCR or RDT test before booking the flights.

According to the ministry, airline companies have to take the responsibility for ticketing in coordination with respective embassies. After they arrive at TIA, the passengers will have to follow the prepared quarantine measures.