KATHMANDU: The rescue flights of fifth phase are scheduled to take place from today to repatriate the Nepali citizens stranded in foreign countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In doing so, national flag carriers, Nepal Airlines Corporation and Himalaya Airlines along with other foreign airlines are conducting chartered flight services from August 17 to bring back Nepali from foreign destinations.

The Nepal Airlines would make chartered rescue flights up to 31 August while the Himalaya Airlines has made public to operate the service up to 30 August.

Following the rapid spread of coronavirus infection in different parts of the country including federal capital Kathmandu, the government has reviewed its earlier decision to resume the operation of domestic and international flights from 17 August.

Taking into consideration the recent situation, the government has decided to put off the commercial flights up to 31 August.

However, the rescue flights to repatriate Nepali from different destinations would continue.

The government has already decided to repatriate 500 Nepali daily through chartered flights. Among them 200 would be repatriated on government cost whereas 300 others would be brought back on their own.

As informed interested Nepali would be repatriated from concerned destinations acting on the recommendations of the Embassy of Nepal in the respective countries.

As many as 51,441 Nepali have already repatriated from different counties as of 14 August according to the COVID-10 Crisis Management Center.

According to the Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal Airlines is scheduled to conduct rescue flights from Doha, Himalaya Airlines from Kuala Lumpur and Doha and Fly Dubai from Dubai today to repatriate Nepali from the destination countries.

RSS