Mid-Pandemic Repatriation Flight Travel Experience

After much work, I get on the bus and wait for other passengers. Soon, everyone has settled down and eager to start the journey. Two long hours later, the sky changes its colour but the bus and the passengers are in the same place.

The Nepal government organized a repatriation flight from Melbourne on the 27th of June and it took me a little more than 27 hours door-to-door. The entire process from arriving at Melbourne airport to leaving the holding centre was very time-consuming due to three-hour delay in flight and waiting in the bus. While some procedures were commendable, others could have been handled more efficiently.

Melbourne Airport

In the days leading up to the flight, the embassy sent multiple reminders and clarification emails regarding the flight and the compulsory PCR test. And the final day arrived with the flight scheduled at 12:50 pm AEST. While the recommended time of arrival for an international flight is three hours prior, but not knowing what to expect, I reached a little less than four hours early. But the check-in counter wasn’t open.

Thus, there was no other option but to wait and hear the embassy representative give out instructions at intervals like “only dry-food will be served during flight” and “do not stand in line if you haven’t taken a PCR test.” The dry food came as a surprise as we were informed that proper meals would be served. The only option left was to buy some extra sandwiches and food from restaurants near-by. Therefore, I highly recommend carrying some home-cooked food, especially if travelling with old people and children.

After waiting some more, the counters open and I enquire about the line for business class passengers. Before the check-in counters, two staff members took our passports and tickets one-by-one. We were given our boarding passes beforehand and had to only drop our luggage at the check-in counter. The next steps, which are security and immigration, are the same as during any other international flight. No health-checkups were conducted at Melbourne airport.

The entire airport was eerily silent with some passengers around and only one café open serving food and adhering to social distance rules. After picking some breakfast, I proceeded to wait in the lounge next to the boarding gate. And soon an hour passes and another and still there is no communication on our flight status. No communication by officials was extremely unprofessional, as by getting a heads-up on the delay, we would have been prepared accordingly.

Soon enough, the flight starts to board and we take off after more than a three-hour delay.

During Flight

The flight journey was very comfortable with the air hostesses taking good care of the passengers. There were dressed in blue coloured PPE kits with mask, gloves and face shields. While you might be tempted to remove your mask in the flight, highly recommend not doing that. Also continuously sanitize your hands because you would be touching things in the flight.

We were served two dry-food meals in the flight with one during each leg of the journey. During the eight-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur, we were given a food packet containing an apple, crackers, pastry, juice, chips, muffin, brownie, assorted dry fruits, one cheese triangle, protein bar and a bottle of water. Since this was the only meal served for 8 hours, I got hungry after some time. Hence, I would have preferred to be served two meals.

After that, we had a stopover at Kuala Lumpur for refuelling and a further four-hour flight to Kathmandu. The food during this time was a smaller packet containing a packet of biscuit, dry snacks, a bottle of water and wai-wai cup noodles. Finally, we landed at Kathmandu airport at 2:15 am local time.

Nepal Airport

Once the plane had come to a halt, we were instructed to remain in our seats, before they allowed us to disembark. We walked from the plane to the arrival gates and outside the gate, we were made to stand in between white circles painted on the ground and were given instructions to keep our forms, passport and PCR test report handy. We started to proceed inside the arrival gates and the floors were marked with yellow boxes and we had to stand in between them.

Before immigration, officials checked our PCR test and passport and kept copies of our travel form. After that, our temperature was taken and then we were allowed to proceed to immigration. Till this point, everything was organized very efficiently and the marks on the floor ensured the following of social distancing rules.

Next step was to take our luggage and every possible social distancing rule was forgotten. There were no officials or passengers to guide people or enforce the rules. Just near the airport exit, we had to give our names, age and district. As soon as we got out of the airport, there was a huge line of buses and each had a district name next to it.

The buses were the normal school ones and we had to load our luggage inside the vehicle. While the rule of moving our respective luggage was done in good thought, I noticed it proved quite difficult for some like pregnant women and older people.

The bus quickly filled up with passengers and lots of luggage and everyone started to wait eagerly. The doors of the bus have been locked and passengers peak through the windows to call out the policemen patrolling us and they have the same answer, “anytime now”. The entire environment gave out the feeling of prisoners being escorted to detention centres.

Two hours passed and we were still at the same place. It was almost 5:30 am and we hadn’t even started proceeding towards the holding centre. After much convincing and screaming by us, our bus started towards its destination, while other buses remained at their original post.

Upon arrival at the holding centre, we removed our luggage from the bus and proceeded inside the party hall being used to house incoming passengers. Walking through the blue large doors, there was a fountain and garden in the centre with the washrooms to our right. After washing up, we were taken to an inside area which had multiple chairs kept at a distance from each other.

The officers on site took a copy of our PCR tests and were instructed to stand in line for a temperature check. A tent had been constructed inside the premises where a doctor was checking fever and asking for the presence of symptoms. Post that, we were given a sim card each, which was to be used for tracking our adherence to quarantine rules for the next 14 days. In the last procedure, our names were called out one-by-one and the officers took down our details like a home address and phone numbers and called our guardians, who had come to pick us up from the centre. The guardians were also required to show their identification cards before we were handed over to them.

The entire procedure at the holding centre took a little more an hour and that could have been more shortened if more officials were stationed there.

Conclusion

All in all, it took more than 27 hours. I would recommend you to take the repatriation flight if only there is no other choice. And if you are taking the flight, you should be prepared for a long procedure and make arrangements accordingly.