Kathmandu, March 24 A number of domestic flights have been cancelled due to the government’s announcement of a week-long lockdown to prevent the coronavirus from spreading in the country. The government had announced on Monday that it would impose a week-long lockdown across the country from today, due to which all domestic flights that were scheduled for today were cancelled along with a number of pre-bookings for this week. “Tickets for our all sectors were already booked and the occupancy was also full as a large number of people were returning to their hometowns due to fear of the coronavirus,” said Anil Manandhar, corporate head of Shree Airlines. One flight to Bhadrapur, two flights to Biratnagar, one flight to Bhairahawa and two flights to Simara were cancelled due to the lockdown, he added. He further said the flights were fully booked as the government had halted long-route land transportation services. Buddha Air also cancelled more than 20 of its flights due to the lockdown, said Binita Thapa, marketing manager of Buddha Air. According to her, Buddha Air had been operating only seven aircraft to 12 destinations and the occupancy for all the sectors were full. “We were in a rush to arrange flights for the passengers who had not been able to purchase tickets. Even today all the sectors were 100 per cent booked,” she said. “The flights for the next three to four days were also totally booked.” Meanwhile, on Monday, Buddha Air had announced it would send its staffers on paid leave and reduce its aircraft and flight numbers. Likewise, around 20 flights of Yeti Airlines scheduled for today were cancelled due to the lockdown. Issuing a notice late Monday, all the airline companies had requested their passengers to contact the travel agencies or the airline companies for a refund as no domestic airline service will be operated for the next one week. “All passengers will be able to claim a full refund.” However, the passengers will be able to claim the refund only after the nationwide lockdown is over on March 31. Prior to this, the chopper services had already been suspended by the operators citing lack of passengers.