Kathmandu: Although the government had restricted operations of domestic and international flights in the wake of nationwide lockdown, the national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), has been conducting chartered flights under special conditions.

According to the Corporation, a total of 22 international and 11 domestic flights have operated so far. Of the total chartered international flights, nine were cargo flights, of which six took-off for Guangzhou while one flight each carried cargo from Changsha, Beijing and Kunming. All of these flights were conducted to bring medicines and equipment for the government to respond to Covid-19 crisis.

Likewise, 13 passenger flights were conducted during this lockdown period. Among the passenger chartered flights, six took off for Japan, three for Hong Kong, two flights to Australia, and one each to Bangladesh and India.

Among the passenger chartered flights, flights to Japan carried Nepalis working and studying in Japan. Meanwhile, other flights were repatriation flights.

Furthermore, NAC has been scheduled to fly to Australia on June 8; and to Hong Kong on June 3, 4, and 5.

“On the basis of request of respective embassies and the government, we are conducting international and domestic flights under special conditions. In the coming days, we will be conducting flights based on the requirement of concerned authorities,” said Archana Khadka, Spokesperson for NAC.

Meanwhile, the domestic flights were operated to collect swab samples for Covid-19 PCR tests.

https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/nepal-airlines-operated-22-chartered-flights-during-lockdown/