By CK Khanal

Kathmandu, Apr. 9: A total of 554 foreigners stranded in Nepal were airlifted to their countries on Wednesday through two chartered planes.
With this, the number of foreigners rescued so far from Nepal had crossed 3,000 after the lockdown decision of the government to combat COVID-19.
During the period, a total of 16 chartered flights had taken place to airlift foreigners to their countries from Kathmandu.
A chartered plane of Qatar Airways airlifted 292 tourists, mostly Germans, including two infants and two children to Doha of Qatar today, said Raj Kumar Chhetri, spokesperson of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
Similarly, another plane of Titan Airways (a British airlines company) airlifted 262 British citizens via Dubai, Chhetri said. He said that it was the first flight of Titan Airways to Nepal.
With this, a total of 19 international chartered flights have taken place, including Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) for rescuing tourists and bringing medical equipment at the Tribhuvan International Airport, he said.
Of them, nine flights of Qatar Airways, four flights of NAC and one flight each from Ethihad Airways, Korean Air, Malaysian Airlines, Malindo Air, Czech Airlines and Titan Airways had taken place during the lockdown period, he said.
NAC had operated two flights for bringing medical equipment from China and one flight to bring Nepali students from Wuhan, China. One chartered plane of NAC had gone to Australia to drop Australian citizens.
So far, more than 3,000 foreign citizens have been airlifted to their country from Tribhuvan International Airport, he said.
He said that two chartered planes of Titan Air and Korean Air were scheduled for April 10 to airlift British and Korean citizens stranded here in Nepal.
The governments of Germany, France, Australia, Malaysia, Korea, the Netherlands, Czech Republic and European counties have rescued their citizens from Nepal. The largest number of tourists airlifted from Nepal are Germans. Germans have been rescued by four chartered planes.
Before airlifting them to their countries, the tourists stranded in different places of the country due to lockdown were rescued by air and land transport to bring them to Kathmandu.
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) had played the coordinating role for the internal rescue of tourists.
Dhananjay Regmi, chief executive officer of NTB, said that altogether 1,721 tourists were rescued from different places of the country after the enforcement of nationwide lockdown.
Of them, 868 were rescued by air and remaining 853 by buses, Regmi said.