SriLankan Airlines will start flying to Nepal’s capital, Kathamandu, starting August 31, 2021.
The airline will operate the flight twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays using their Airbus A320 aircraft (158-seater). The flight will depart Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB) at 05:40 AM and will arrive at Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM) at 09:40 AM the same day.
“We have approved the Sri Lankan Airlines flights effective from August 31, 2021. It will begin from Tuesday,” said Raj Kumar Chhetri, spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
As per Nepal’s civil aviation regulator, passengers from Colombo will need to provide evidence of hotel booking for 7 days of quarantine before boarding the flight to Kathmandu. Travelers will need a negative PCR test result for COVID-19, and the test should be taken 72 hours prior to arrival.
This is not the first time for the two capital cities to be connected. Nepal’s national carrier, Nepal Airlines, used to operate direct flights to Colombo in the 1980s when the airline was still known as Royal Nepal Airlines. However, the carrier had to suspend operations following an armed movement by Sri Lanka’s Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Nepal’s tourism ministry reports that in 2019, about 1.2 million international tourists visited Nepal. Over 55,000 of those were from Sri Lanka.