About two weeks back, Government of Nepal decided to lift the travel ban for commercial airlines and decide to resume both international and domestic from 17th of August. As of now the decision still stands, and the regular flights are set to resume from the said dates. But there is a high chance that the decision might be halted for now . Why? Because the spread of coronavirus has reached to different corners of Nepal and even more than before.
Yes, the virus has been rapidly spreading to different parts of the country. Even the capital, Kathmandu where only a handful of positive cases were found during the lockdown, now has over a thousand positive cases of corona virus. The capital is one of the major cities of Nepal that has seen a massive increase of the positive cases of the virus since the end of lockdown. The end of lockdown has not been any kind to Nepal in terms of the spread of virus. Hundreds of positive cases are discovered every day from different corners of Nepal. Some of the high risk zones have been under lockdown for days now.
While two new international airports are yet to be completed, Tribhuwan International Airport happens to be the only international airport of Nepal. So you will be landing on Kathmandu when you travel to Nepal. As of now, the number of positive cases of the coronavirus is increasing day by day in the capital. So this definitely does not look a great time to resume air travel in Nepal. As per the news- Yogesh Bhattarai, Tourism minister of Nepal has also quoted that the current situation of Nepal does not favours the resumption of the commercial flights as decided which is absolutely true. He has also mentioned that the nation might not under lockdown as before but take all the necessary actions to prevent the virus from further spreading.
Currently, only chartered flights with specific purposes are permitted to fly to and from Nepal. Almost 45000 stranded Nepalese from different parts of the world has been rescued and there are 45 000 more who are asking to be taken back to Nepal as reported by different news portal. Himalaya airlines and Nepal airlines are the two major carriers from Nepal which are operating chartered flights. Apart from that some of the airlines are operating repatriation flights to Nepal as the air travel for commercial flights is still suspended.
However, the decision to resume the regular commercial flights form August 17 still stands. Airlines are already preparing to get back in the game. Government has already taken a few more steps to control the spread of the virus. If the number of the positive cases increases in coming days then there is a very high chance that the commercial flights might not resume from the dates as previously decide by the government. But there is no news about that yet. So if you plan on traveling to Nepal, stay tuned. Check the safe destinations to travel and things to do in Nepal and get ready. Apart from that, Manang and Mustang are one of the few places of Nepal which have zero positive cases of corona virus which is a good news. Autumn climbing is nearly here, which is one of the best season for trekking in the high mountains.
Now let us just wait until the further notice about the resumption of the commercial flights in Nepal.
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