Nepal proposes for direct air flights between Kathmandu and Lhasa

KATHMANDU, MARCH 3: Nepal has proposed China for resuming direct air flights between Kathmandu and Lhasa. The very proposal was made during the first meeting of the Nepal-China Coordination Mechanism on Border, Trade and Cooperation held recently in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China.

"The air flights, that were discontinued because of the COVID-19 pandemic, are crucial to help expand the bilateral cooperation between Nepal and China in sectors like tourism and trade. So, the Nepali side asked the Chinese side to again operate them and the latter, remarkably, responded positively," the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Supply reportedly said.

With the absence of direct aerial connections between Kathmandu and Lhasa, the airplanes are now flying the indirect Kathmandu-Chengdu-Lhasa route.

With the pandemic coming under control, five different airline companies have already started conducting flights between Nepal and China. Of them, Air China and Sichuan are connecting Kathmandu and Chengdu, while China Eastern is flying to Kathmandu from Kunming. Similarly, China Southern Kathmandu is operating flights between Ganzhou and Kathmandu and Himalaya Airlines is connecting Kathmandu to Kunming and Beijing.