Himalaya Airlines has launched a direct flight to Shanghai in China from today.

An aircraft from Himalaya Airlines took off to Shanghai with 137 passengers from Tribhuvan International Airport at 9:20 am. The aircraft would land at Tribhuvan International Airport at 9:00 pm today with passengers. It will take 5 hours and 20 minutes to reach Shanghai from Kathmandu.

According to the company, there would be a regular flight to Shanghai on every Saturday. It is the first flight of Himalaya Airlines to Shanghai. With this, Himalaya Airlines has expanded its service to nine different cities in China.

At a news conference organised today at Tribhuvan International Airport to inform about the inaugural flight, Vice-Chairperson of Himalaya Airlines Bijay Shrestha said the direct flight to Shanghai, the main business and tourism hub, would further strengthen relations between the two countries.

He expressed the belief that it would also help to attract more and more Chinese tourists to Nepal.

Similarly, TIA General Manager Pratap Babu Tiwari shared that the number of Chinese tourists visiting Nepal would increase in the coming days as flights from China are being expanded gradually after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic and Commercial Counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Nepal, Xie Yu, mentioned that the Kathmandu-Sanghai flight of Himalaya Airlines would further strengthen relations between the two countries and it would be important from a business point of view.