Nepal's Himalaya Airlines suspends flight services to China over Wuhan virus scare

Nepal's Himalayan Airlines on Thursday terminated flight services to China for an indefinite period of time following the outbreak of novel coronavirus that has killed more than 170 people and infected more than thousands other in the East Asian country.

In the wake of the recent 2019-nCoV outbreak, the airlines said it has already introduced precautionary measures on its flights to contain the Wuhan pneumonia epidemic.

"Stepping up further in our efforts, we have suspended most of our flights on Nepal-China sector until further notice," the airlines said in an advisory.

As per the notice published today, passengers can apply for free ticket alteration and cancellation on all flights to and from China. Passengers have to contact the original ticket purchase channel and need to avail the waiver of the fees within the validity period of the ticket.

Stepping up the precautionary measures, the company has now decided to suspend flights on the Nepal-China sector until further notice, Ujjawala Dali, head of the Department of Brand and Service Improvement, told Himalayan Times.

"Flight bookings of Changsha and Guiyang airports have already been cleared, so we have cancelled flights to these destinations since last week," Dali said.

She, however, noted that five flights, including three to Beijing and two to Chongqing, have to be operated at any cost as the occupancy is full.

As per Dali, the last flight to Beijing will take off from Tribhuvan International Airport on February 7, while last flight to Chongqing will be on February 6.

The World Health Organisation has shown particular concern over the cases of human-to-human transmission outside China. A WHO meeting to decide whether to declare outbreak of strains of Corona Virus as "health emergency" is expected to be held Thursday.