Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint venture airline, resumed its operations to Dubai on February 14, 2021, after a long gap. The airlines first took off to Dubai International Airport on April 28, 2017 connecting with Abu Dhabi via free shuttlebus for onward passengers. However with increased passenger traffic a direct flight to Abu Dhabi International Airport was initiated from March 31, 2019 instead of Dubai.
After the pandemic, UAE has opened up for visitors with COVID-19 safety protocols resulting in substantial increase in passenger flow both ways on KTM-DXB-KTM sector. Himalaya has thus reconnected with Dubai International Airport arriving at Terminal 2 with its thrice weekly service. Kathmandu-Dubai flights are scheduled to fly every Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday and will depart from Dubai every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
The first resumption flight, H9 565, departed from Tribhuwan International Airport at 22:36 hours (local time) and touched down at Dubai International Airport – Terminal 2 (DXB) at 01:40 hours (local time). The return flight H9 566, from Dubai departed at 04:10 hours (local time) the next day and landed in Kathmandu at 09:25 hours (local time).
Zhou Enyong, President, Himalaya Airlines, handed over the boarding passes to the first three passengers along with a special souvenir kit at the check-in counter. Marking the special occasion, all passengers on both outbound and inbound flights received a special travel amenity kit on board.
The airline has appointed Hello Himalaya Travel & Tourism LLC, Dubai as its General Sales Agents (GSA) for passenger handling in the United Arab of Emirates, who will be responsible for the airline’s sales and marketing, market development, reservations and ticketing services representing the airline for UAE market.
