Kathmandu May 15.

The national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), is operating a chartered flight to Narita International Airport of Japan today. The flight would be made by NAC’s A-330 wide-body plane. The plane will fly to Japan carrying some Japanese citizens stranded in Nepal due to the lockdown and the Nepali workers and students who had come home on holiday. The plane with 250 passengers on board will take off from Tribhuvan International Airport here at 9 pm today, NAC spokesperson Archana Khadka said. She said the plane will return to Kathmandu on Saturday. Kathmandu to Narita flight is of around seven and half hours duration. This is the second time NAC is operating a chartered flight to Narita. Before this, the national flag-carrier had operated flight to Narita on April 10. NAC is operating three chartered flights to Japan in this month alone. It is operating chartered flights to Narita Airport of Japan on May 17 and 22 as well. The NAC planes operating these flights will however return to Nepal empty. Sumegh Tour and Travels Pvt Ltd of Kathmandu has taken permission for using the NAC’s wide-body plane for operating the chartered flight to Japan, the NAC spokesperson said. NAC had started operating direct flights to Japan since March 2. The flights to Japan is suspended at present due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nepal Airlines has been operating international flights to nine different destinations via its two wide-body and two narrow-body airplan