500 passengers stranded in Humla in lack of flights

By Rajan Rawat Humla, May 24: A lack of flights has put passengers seeking to travel out of Humla in trouble. All airlines except Tara Air have stopped flying to the district, which is not connected to the national road network, which has made it difficult for many to get tickets and fly to their required destinations.

Passenger Kali Bahadur Rokaya, who has been trying to get a ticket since May 17, worried that he would miss his civil service exam. Recalling how airlines had operated flights to and from the district even during the national and regional lockdowns imposed during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, he questioned why they had stopped flying at present.

Namgyal Tamang, president of the Humla Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told The Rising Nepal that at least 500 passengers had been stranded after private airlines and the state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation stopped flying to Humla. “The crowd of passengers seen at the Simkot office of Tara Air, which operates one flight a day, shows just how bad the situation is,” he said. Tamang estimated that around 2,000 people had entered the district to vote in local election held on May 13. However, only 14 passengers are able to leave in a day on Tara Air’s single flight.

Govind Lama, in-charge of Summit Air’s Simkot office, said that the lack of flights to Humla was because all planes were currently focused on operating Kathmandu-Lukla flights. 

Assistant Chief District Officer of Humla Anupam Poudel said that patients were also not being able to travel to hospitals. He also said that security personnel had been forced to walk out of the district.