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IA flights to Kathmandu resume on Thursday

Five months after the hijack of IC 814 from Kathmandu, Indian Airlines will resume its services to the Nepalese capital on Thursday.

An A300 with 210 people on board will leave Delhi at 1115 hours and the flight will return as IC 814 from the Tribhuvan International Airport in the afternoon.

Captain Devi Sharan, who was commander of the hijacked aircraft, will not, however, be taking out the first flight. He has stayed back in the United States after going to Atlanta to receive the Safe Skies Award.

The Calcutta-Kathmandu flights will start from Friday. An Indian Airlines spokesman said 130 people have booked seats on the 145-seater A320 flight from Calcutta.

The load factor on the Kathmandu-Delhi and Kathmandu-Calcutta flights would take some time in picking up because first there would have to be an inflow from India, the spokesman said.

Flights to Kathmandu were suspended after the Christmas-eve hijack from Kathmandu.

The suspension hit both countries as Nepal depends heavily on tourist inflow from India and for Indian Airlines it's a heavy profit-making sector.

UNI

Complete coverage of the hijack drama

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