Helicopters and fixed wing aircraft of private and government airlines made 56 flights to Lukla and returned with 733 trekkers who were trapped in Lukla because of bad weather for the last nine days.[break]
Manager at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) Purna Chudal said around 500 tourists are still waiting to be rescued.
"If weather remains good like today, all the stranded ones can be brought to the capital by tomorrow afternoon," he added.
As many as 40 flights of private airlines took off for Lukla, which included 15 each of Tara and Agni Air, six of Sita Air and four of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC). Each of these flights carried 16 passengers. Similarly, Fishtail, Moutain, Air Dynasty and Simrik Air rescued 10, 16, 35 and 16 passengers respectively. Helicopters also made two flights to Namchebazar and brought 16 tourists to the capital.
Also, Agni Air, Tara Air and Sita Air operated cargo flights to Lukla to supply food items. Chudal said these flights carried around 7,000 kg of food items.
More than 2,000 tourists and 1,500 Nepalis were trapped since October 31, when regular flights were disrupted due to inclement weather.
Private operators had carried around 1,000 tourists on Monday and around 500 tourists on Sunday from Lukla as part of the rescue operation.
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