KATHMANDU, August 16: Airlines that have been flying empty to UAE to bring passengers to Nepal since last Monday will now be able to carry passengers from Nepal as well. Although the UAE allowed the entrance for passengers from Nepal no one was able to leave on national aircraft as the COVID Rapid PCR test facility was not available at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

The Saudi Arabian airline, Air Arabia started taking passengers to UAE from Nepal starting Thursday but the Nepali airlines were not able to do so due to lack of COVID Rapid PCR test facility at TIA. Even Fly Dubai was only taking passengers from Nepal with a maximum of 6 hours transit at Dubai. Nepal Airlines Corporation and Himalaya Airlines had been flying to the UAE only to bring passengers from Dubai.

According to sources at TIA, the Air Transport Operations Dubai Civil Aviation Authority had earlier stated that a PCR negative report of the COVID test conducted within the 48 hours and the Rapid PCR test conducted four hours before the flight at the airport premises were required to board the flight. But now it has been replaced by the PCR test report conducted four hours before the flight. With the implementation of the new provision, a way has been opened for national airlines to carry passengers from Nepal.

Based on the same test, Himalaya Airlines took 152 passengers and Air Arabia took 155 passengers on Saturday night's flights. Similarly, Nepal Airlines Corporation is preparing to fly to the destination at 11:30 PM on Monday. The NAC is preparing to operate two flights a week from today.

On Saturday, Himalaya Airlines called the passengers to the airport, collected swabs and flew them after undergoing PCR test. The Dubai government has recently listed Nepal, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Uganda as high-risk countries due to the increase in COVID-19 infection in these countries.

Meanwhile, the NAC, which is currently operating regular flights to various destinations including Malaysia, Dubai, Doha and Delhi, is planning to start flights to Japan and Hong Kong. The NAC has stated that it is preparing to resume regular flights to the destination, which has been closed for three months with the outbreak of the second wave of COVID-19 in the country.

According to a source at NAC, ticket booking for the Hong Kong flight has been opened. But as the flight schedule has not been made public, the date of the flight is not certain. The corporation has fixed a one-way fare of Rs 70,000 for the destination. Similarly, the process of scheduling flights to Japan has already started. The corporation is now preparing to start flying to Japan once every 15 days.

 
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