Scheduled flights resume

The Nepal government reopened regular flights after nearly 6 months on 1 September with a scheduled Nepal Airlines departure to Narita. Since March, there have been only chartered repatriation flights to take stranded tourists out, and bring back Nepalis.

The government is allowing regular flights only from countries where PCR tests are easily available. There will be charter flights from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait for now, even though transit passengers will be allowed through Doha. All passengers on regular flights need to have  RT PCR negative documents before boarding, but will have to self isolate at home for one week after landing. Only diplomats and families will be allowed to fly to Kathmandu, no tourists or foreign visitors.

Nepal Airlines will be operating two more flights to and from Narita this month, as well as four to Kuala Lumpur and Dubai. Altogether there will be 14 flights during September to and from Kuala Lumpur By Nepal Airlines,, Himalaya, Malindo and Malaysia Airlines. Most other airlines are flying once a week with limited passenger loads to comply with the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) limit on the number of arriving passengers. Earlier, CAAN had set a limit of 500 passengers a day, but has now increased it to 800, which includes charted flights.

International airlines operating limited scheduled flights are Turkish airlines, Qatar Airways, Etihad, Oman Air, Fly Dubai, Malaysia Airlines, Dragon Air, China Southern, and Air China. Permission has not yet been given to flights from Indian cities because of the continuing rise in the number of COVID-19 cases there, airlines sources said.