Kathmandu: Himalaya Airlines has said that there have been misleading news reports and allegations across the digital news platforms, falsely accusing the airlines with airfare cartelization claiming the airline is charging high airfares for Kathmandu to Dammam flights and the stay-in quarantine facilities which was mandated by Saudi Arabia as well as Nepal government.
Himalaya Airlines wants to address the rumors and allegations and clarify the reports that were published are baseless and misconstrued without proper facts and verification, it said in a statement.
The government of Nepal and Saudi Arabia had published mandatory regulatory guidelines which defined unavoidable fare inclusive of stay-in quarantine facilities and related Covid-19 health facilities. In compliance with the guidelines, our airline launched a bundled fare with all the essential facilities to operate flights in this sector, reads the statement.
The bundled fare includes airline base fare, all regulatory taxes, airport to hotel transport charges, 7 nights hotel room charges, (breakfast, lunch, dinner included), and 2 PCR tests on arrival at Dammam, according to the statement.
As per the Saudi Arabian government guidelines, individual passengers are not allowed to self-quarantine and are mandated to stay in specific quarantine facilities allocated by their government. Hence, this has led to expensive airfare costs compared to the regular unbundled fares, added the statement.
For further clarification, the airlines would like to mention that the additional hotel quarantine charges for Dammam contribute 60% of the fare while the airfare contributes to only 40% of the total cost, the statement reads.
The airlines has been ensuring free revalidation of tickets for passengers with valid return tickets for any sector and also for those who were previously unable to fly due to the flight suspensions, according to Himalaya Airlines.
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