558 Nepalis stranded in Malaysia evacuated, along with 16 bodies; NAC refutes allegation of charging extra airfare on repatriation flights

  • July 21, 2020

Under the second phase of repatriation, a total of 558 passengers were repatriated yesterday.

As per Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), only three passenger flights were conducted today while the remaining two were cargo flights. All three repatriation flights were conducted from Malaysia. Of them, two flights were conducted by Himalaya Airlines, while Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) conducted one flight from the Southeast Asian nation.

NAC evacuated 257 passengers along with 15 dead bodies from Kuala Lumpur.

Similarly, Himalaya Airlines evacuated 148 passengers in one flight, and another 153 passengers and one dead body in the second flight.

According to TIA, six repatriation flights are scheduled for Tuesday.

Issuing a press statement yesterday, NAC explained that the corporation was not charging extra amount on airfare going beyond the airfare set by the government. Furthermore, it has also claimed that except for scheduled flights no extra chartered flights have been conducted during this repatriation phase.

“It has come to the notice of the corporation that a few agents have become active and are trying to arrange flight tickets for passengers.

Through this notice, we would like to inform the passengers that NAC has not hired any agent for ticket booking and we request our passengers to book their tickets based on the schedule published on our website and pay the prices set by the government,” reads the statement.

The notice has further mentioned that the national flag carrier will take necessary action against anyone found to be selling tickets illegally.

Meanwhile, only one domestic flight was conducted today. As per TIA, Shree Airlines departed for Janakpur from Kathmandu carrying four passengers.