Climbers returning from Mount Everest and other Himalayan peaks are struggling to find a return flight back home after Nepal banned most air travel to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases, mountaineering operators and hikers said on Wednesday.
Most regular international flights are closed through June as a deadly second wave of the coronavirus hit the Himalayan nation tucked between China and India.
Tashi Lakpa Sherpa, a senior official at Kathmandu-based private firm Seven Summit Treks, said climbers were finding it difficult to get home as only five weekly flights - to India, Qatar and Turkey - were operational. Andrew Hughes, from the United States, said he had to pay for an expensive seat on a chartered flight to Qatar on Wednesday night due to the shortage of regular flights.
Mexican climber Viridiana Alvarez, who had been stranded in Nepal for nearly three weeks after climbing Mount Annapurna, the world's tenth highest peak at 8,091 metres , said she was lucky to find a seat on a chartered flight.
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