Five int'l airlines pulled out of Nepal in past two years

KATHMANDU, Aug 18:

The number of international airlines operating flights to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu is falling with five international airlines withdrawing from the country in the past two years.

Gulf Air (Bahrain), Rak Airways (UAE), Arkefly (the Netherlands), Pakistan International Airlines (Pakistan) and United Airways (Bangladesh) have stopped flying to Nepal. With this the number of international airlines serving Kathmandu has dropped to 26.

According to the Tourism Statistics 2014, the number of airlines operating in Nepal dropped to 26 from 29 in 2013. Though two new airlines -- Malindo Air (Malaysia) and Sichuan Airlines (China) started flying to Nepal in 2015, PIA and United Airways pulled out from Nepal the same year.

Birendra Prasad Shrestha, acting general manager of TIA said, said the five international airlines stopped operation in Nepal because of their own reasons.

Gulf Air terminated all flights to Kathmandu citing commercial reasons. Similarly, Rak Airways, the national carrier of Ras al-Khaimah, one of the seven states of UAE, halted all its flights globally from January 2014. Arkefly, which was flying to Kathmandu from Amsterdam, stopped flying to Nepal December 2013, citing commercial reasons.

"All five airlines stopped their operations in Nepal because they could not perform here well," Bharat Kumar Shrestha, president of Airlines Operators' committee- Nepal (AOCN), said.

PIA - the national flag carrier of Pakistan - halted flight to Kathmandu from the end of 2014, ending 17 years of operation in Nepal, citing internal reasons. Though the airline had around 90 percent occupancy to Karachi, occupancy on Karachi-Kathmandu flight was around 30-35 percent only.

The number of international airlines operating in Nepal was 32 in 2012. Kingfisher Airlines, GMG Airlines and JetLite had stopped flying to Nepal in 2012. BB Airways - a privately owned Nepali international airline - stooped operation in the same year.

Though the number of airlines has fallen, Chinese carriers like China Eastern Airlines and China southern Airlines increased their scheduled flights to Nepal from 326 to 358 and from 363 to 502 respectively in 2014 compared to 2013.

The number of flights, which has gone down drastically after the earthquake, is slowly picking up in recent weeks. TIA currently handles 60 to 70 take-offs and landings every day.

The number of flights has gone down drastically with Chinese carriers reducing their flights from two to three flights a day to three flights a week. -

Source: Republica