Chinese fly out of Nepal but some seats come at a steep price

Beijing acted quickly yesterday to evacuate Chinese tourists stranded in Kathmandu, with roughly 1,000 expected to have flown home yesterday amid reports that some carriers had raised ticket prices.

State television reported that the nationals would be flown home on nine passenger flights, including two chartered ones, with a total capacity of about 1,100 seats.

At the request of the Chinese embassy in Kathmandu, China Southern Airlines sent an extra aircraft yesterday to pick up the tourists.

Embassy staff were also at the airport in the Nepalese capital to help Chinese tourists secure flights, intervening after at least one Chinese carrier allegedly ramped up ticket prices.

"Some airlines have lifted the price of a ticket to 13,000 yuan (HK$16,500). Cashing in on another country's disaster seriously tarnishes our national image," embassy military attache Senior Colonel Liu Xiaoguang was quoted by the Sohu news portal as saying. "I want to smack them."

A one-way ticket for the same route in two weeks' time costs about 2,500 yuan on various travel websites. Most tickets from Kathmandu to Guangzhou were sold out and the lowest price, offered by China Southern, was nearly 8,000 yuan yesterday.