64 domestic flights per day to be operated from Thursday by adopting all health and safety measures

KATHMANDU: The domestic flights stopped by the government due to the second wave of the coronavirus, following the prohibitory orders, are resuming on Thursday. According to the Association of Airline Operators, there will be 64 daily flights initially after the opening of domestic flights. 

The flights will be operated from 6 AM to 6 PM on Thursday, said Yograj Kandel, Spokesperson of the association. According to him, Buddha Air will operate 31 flights, Yeti Airlines 15 flights, Shree Airlines 7 flights and Saurya Airlines 3 flights. 

The operations of flights are 50% less than the total capacity of flights operated before the prohibitory orders. Before the orders were imposed, there were 130 daily domestic flights last April. CAAN Spokesperson Raj Kumar Chhetri said that the flights should be operated in compliance with all the health standards issued by the Civil Aviation Authority Nepal (CAAN). 

CAAN said that it had issued a circular to the airline operators with new criteria to be implemented. The airline has discussed the modalities of operating the flight among the representatives of the district administration and security agencies. Discussions have been held on reducing the crowd at the airport as much as possible, for passengers to wash their hands with soap and water, entering the airport after getting health check-up by experienced health workers, maintaining social distance, all those mobilized for checking to wear PPE, and preventing relatives from entering or leaving the airport premises.