Kathmandu-New Delhi flights resume after nine months
Flights between Nepal and India that were suspended for the past nine months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have resumed from Thursday.
A narrow-body aircraft of Nepal Airlines Corporation took off for India’s capital city New Delhi at 11:20 am, according to the Tribhuvan International Airport Office. The aircraft is scheduled to return to Kathmandu today itself.
According to Nepal Airlines Corporation, the narrow-body aircraft has flown to New Delhi carrying 135 passengers of economy class and six passengers of business class.
NAC Spokesperson Karishma Shrestha said that the occupancy of the first flight after nine months was very enthusiastic and two flights have been expected for New Delhi every day like in the past.
Shrestha shared, “The NAC is very excited by India’s air transport bubble concept. We expect to resume flight services to two other destinations in India soon.”
Both countries will make two flights on the Kathmandu-New Delhi sector per day. Regular flights between Kathmandu and New Delhi have resumed after the governments of both countries decided to resume the service under ‘Transport Bubble Mechanism’.
Nepal’s national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation, and India’s Air India will make flights daily. The NAC had suspended Kathmandu-Delhi flight from March 23, 2020 due to the lockdown imposed after the coronavirus pandemic.
The government had resumed international flights from September 1. However, flights to three Indian destinations — New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — were not resumed due to high infection rate in India.
The NAC has been operating international flights to nine destinations of seven countries including three in India. The NAC has two wide-body aircraft and two narrow-body aircrafts for international flights.