Had it not been for heavy bookings for September-October, the badly vandalised Qatar Airways office in Kathmandu would not have reopened so soon. Despite suffering losses of around Rs 20 million during the vandalism on 1 September, the airline resumed all of its 15 weekly flights after a week.

"Although we are in such bad shape here due to the vandalism, international tour operators want us to resume operations as soon as possible because bookings for this month and the next are quite good," said Qatar's local agent, Joy Dewan. Earlier bookings show that the international airline had 90 percent occupancy in inbound traffic during September-October, and there have been few cancellations.

Despite deciding to resume flights, the Qatar management has demanded security assurances and compensation from the government. A committee under the initiative of Tourism Minister Deep Kumar Upadhyay has been set up to see what can be done regarding compensation.

Air Sahara, whose inaugual flight scheduled for the day of the riots was cancelled, has announced it will begin operations on 16 September. Austrian Airlines and the Dutch charter operator, Martinair, which had stopped seasonal flights for the monsoon, are also expected to begin flights this month.