The government has decided to open domestic flights. Following health guidelines, a meeting of the Council of Ministers on Monday agreed to reopen domestic flights without raising the total number of domestic flights by 50%. According to the Council of Ministers’ decisions, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation have been tasked with approving flight schedules and flight approvals for the relevant airlines after the launch of domestic flights.
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Since April, the government has started suspending domestic flights, claiming an elevated risk of the corona. Domestic flights have been opened to alleviate airport congestion, enabling the airline to operate just ten flights per day instead of 20 flights per day for one flight after another. According to the Ministry of Tourism, creating the timetable and establishing the flight date would take place only on Wednesday.
According to Buddhisagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, after the government’s decision, the Ministry of Tourism will develop a flight schedule and determine how many flights would be allocated to the relevant airlines. According to him, the government has granted authorization to fly at half the capacity of flights scheduled before 29 April, i.e., before the lockdown.
25 International flights in ten nations
As per the Council of Ministers’ decision to allow 25 international flights in ten nations, the Council of Ministers has agreed to resume international flights following all applicable public health regulations; previously, flights to Turkey and Qatar were permitted to run once a week; however, extra flights to these destinations are now allowed. It has been agreed to expand international flights to eight more nations regularly.
According to the Ministry of Tourism, the Council of Ministers has authorized four bilateral flights from Kathmandu to Qatar, two to Turkey, four to the United Arab Emirates, two to Saudi Arabia, two to Kuwait, one to Muscat, four to Malaysia, one to South Korea, one to Japan, and four to China.
Nepali Airlines will operate two flights per week between Kathmandu and Doha and two flights per week between Kathmandu and Qatar. Turkish Airlines will operate two flights per week to Istanbul, Turkey; two flights per week to Dubai, United Arab Emirates; and two flights per week to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Nepali Airlines has been granted permission to operate two flights per week to Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait has been granted permission to operate two flights per week to Kuwait. Regular flights to Muscat are operated from Oman every week. Similarly, Nepali Airlines would operate two flights, and Malaysia Airlines will operate two flights four times a week in Malaysia.
Korean airlines are permitted one flight per week for South Korea. Nepali Airlines will conduct a single flight to Japan each week. According to the Council of Ministers’ decision, Nepalese Airlines will operate one flight to China’s Chengdu and Guangzhou and one flight to each of those cities from Chinese airlines.
