Nepal Airlines has departed from Kathmandu for Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. The flight, made possible by the Australian Embassy was repatriating 127 Australian citizens, 149 Australian permanent residents, and 5 New Zealand nationals. It was the second successful repatriation effort by the Australian mission in Kathmandu. A further third flight was also planned, however, it has been canceled owing to insufficient interest.
The flight was scheduled to make a brief stopover at Kuala Lumpur, and landed in Sydney on 7th May, 2020. The rescued passengers will have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine before they allowed to proceed to their respective homes. The return flight carried 30,000 COVID-19 testing kits, which will be onboarded in Kuala Lumpur.
Like its previous effort, the Australian Embassy has done a commendable effort towards the repatriation effort – they were able to secure permission from the Nepal Government towards facilitating the rescue flight.
They coordinated directly with Nepal Airlines towards their second repatriation effort and managed to bring in Australians stranded.
“118 passengers were transported from locations outside Kathmandu, including 40 from Butwal/Chitwan, 18 from Jhapa and 18 from Pokhara”, the Embassy said on its Facebook statement.
The flight is being captained by celebrity Captain Bijay Lama.
