International Airfares Drop By 35 Percent In Nepal

International Airfares Drop By 35 Percent In Nepal
Bernam.com, 12-May-10

With the number of airlines connecting Nepal to different global destinations is increasing, travel agencies said the airfares have dropped by more than 30 to 35 percent this year, Xinhua news agency cited local media reported on Wednesday.

These agencies said that the growing number of airlines and travellers and increased flight frequency had triggered a massive price war.

Managing Director of DK Travel Dipendra Kumar Sharma was quoted by The Kathmandu Post daily as saying, that competition between airlines and their increased flight frequency had ultimately benefitted Nepali passengers.

He said that class airlines operating in the Middle East had slashed the price of their tickets from 25,000-30,000 Nepali rupees(some US$352 to US$422) just one year ago to 16,000-18,000 rupees (US$225 to US$253).

Sharma said that Qatar Airways had upped its weekly frequency from 11 flights to 21 flights.

While, Bahrain Air has increased its three weekly flights to seven. Air Arabia now flies 11 times a week compared to thrice previously, and Gulf Air operates 13 weekly flights against nine weekly flights before.

Etihad Airways has increased its flight frequency to seven per week from four. Likewise, other airlines have started adding flights with the ongoing competition.

Shyam Raj Thapaliya, managing director of Osho World Travel Nepal, said that airfares to the United States, Europe and China have also dropped significantly.

Sky-high with Buddha

Sky-high with Buddha Air
Nepal’s best-run airline marks ten years
NepaliTimes, Issue #375 (2007-11-23 - 2007-11-29)
MIN RATNA BAJRACHARYA

PLANE SPEAKING: Buddha Air’s managing director, Birendra Basnet, stepping out of one his airline’s fleet of Raytheon Beechcraft 1900Ds at Kathmandu airport on Wednesday.
Buddha Air’s Birendra Basnet still remembers the day well. It was November 1997 and his first aircraft was arriving on a ferry flight from Bombay. As he drove his car down the airport road on the straight stretch from New Baneswor, he saw a plane about to touch down. The tail stabiliser lights illuminated the blue-and-beige Buddha Air logo.

“It was the proudest moment in my life,” Basnet recalls. “I felt a great sense of accomplishment.”

Today, ten years later, that sense of accomplishment is even greater for this Budanilkantha School graduate who forayed from being a middle class farmer in Morang to becoming the owner of Nepal’s most trusted airline. Since 1997, Buddha Air’s fleet has expanded to seven aircraft, its route map now spans the country from east to west.

Asked to rank the main factors that made Buddha excel, Basnet counts them off on his fingers: “Lots of luck, lots of hard work, being realistic, having a good business plan and taking care of our staff.”

The airline selected the twin-engined turboprop Raytheon Beechcraft 1900C, but realised only later just how lucky it was with the choice. The 19-seater was the right aircraft at the right time with its performance, capacity, and Nepal’s passenger volumes.

At $5 million apiece, the capital investment was steep, but the airline saved on maintenance costs and reaped the benefit of being the first private domestic airline in Nepal to invest in new equipment.

The first few years were difficult. New private airlines had sprung up, Necon had just brought in used ATR42s and Cosmic was flying SAAB340s. The war intensified and tourism went into free fall. “Those were the hardest years,” Basnet recalls, “and that is when we realised our biggest asset was our staff. It was their dedication and hard work to help management overcome the crisis that saved us.”

The airline’s main mantra, says Basnet, is never to compromise on two things: staff morale and maintenance. Indeed, Buddha has the lowest crew turnover of any airline in Nepal at a time when companies are hemorrhaging pilots and staff to foreign airlines.

As other airlines folded due to poor management or low yield, by 2002 Buddha was soaring again. It inducted two more Beechcrafts and was paying creditors regularly giving the airline a lot of credibility. Today, it fully owns three of its 1900Cs.

“You need proper and transparent book-keeping. You have to strive for reliability and integrity,” says Basnet. “In the airline business, if you take shortcuts, you are gone. You have to be in it for the long-haul.”

Basnet reads a lot, and he listens to the experts: engineers, accounts people, admin staff, IT specialists. Basnet’s office has glass panels on all walls so the staff sees him and he sees the staff. His table is paperless. On a computer, he constantly monitors fleet deployment, performance, occupancy, yield.

But things don’t always go according to plan. Buddha Air dabbled with trying to help a new airline startup in India’s northeast with equipment and operations, but had to back out when the venture took too long to take off.

“We’ve now prepared a five-year strategy and we are much more focussed about what we want to do,” says Basnet. Buddha will concentrate on the domestic market which isn’t yet saturated, it is looking at bigger turboprops, an expanded fleet and after that to start connecting Nepali cities to northern India and South Asia.

“We aren’t going to expand, or add jets just for the sake of it, we will build on our strengths,” says Basnet. “But we have to keep growing, if we don’t we’ll stagnate.”

Orient Thai flies in Nepali sky

Orient Thai flies in Nepali sky
eKantipur, 29-Dec-07
POST REPORT

Orient Thai Airlines, a Thai budget airline company, began thrice-a-week flights between Bangkok and Kathmandu from Saturday, becoming the ninth airline to fly in Nepal's sky in the last 14 months.

The number of airlines offering services to Nepal has doubled during this period, while several more added frequency.

"The flights are operated with 170-seater MD-82 aircraft," said Ajay Simha of Orient Asia International, the general sales agent of Orient Thai in Nepal. "The response is very good. We are targeting corporate and religious tourists from Thailand headed for birthplace of Gautam Buddha."

UAE-based RAK Airways has also plan to commence direct services between Ras Al Khaimah and Kathmandu. It is awaiting Nepal government's green light to operate ten flights a week.

Four more airlines including Air Arabia, Etihad Airways, Thai Airways, and Qatar Airways are planning to increase their frequencies, wooed by soaring flow of travelers to Nepal.

With peace returning to Nepal, vacationers are flocking in and foreign airlines are flying high.

The rising number of domestic travelers and the continuing problems with the national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), are further incentives for world carriers to fly to Nepal.

Notwithstanding the

growing number of air connections, a shortage of seats continues to bedevil the tourism industry.

At a time when foreign airlines are merrily operating packed flights to Nepal, NAC has virtually disappeared from international skies. Nearly two weeks ago it suspended all its international flights till December 31 after its only operating Boeing flew off to Brunei for routine maintenance.

Cosmic Air resumes flight

Cosmic Air resumes flight
ArthaExpres, 16-Oct-07

Cosmic Air, which had suspended all its domestic and international flights almost a year ago, is now resuming its flights from October 17.

As per the schedule published by the Cosmic, there will be 14 flights per week to Delhi from Kathmandu. Similarly, another 14 flights in a week are scheduled to fly to Biratnagar and Nepalgunj — one flight each per day to these two destinations. The resumption of service has come when the aviation sector is facing a rush of passengers, especially on Delhi-Kathmandu sector. Its one-way airfare to Delhi is Rs 8,000. “We will try to provide an upgraded service to passengers,” Madhavi Shrestha, vice-chairperson of Cosmic Air, said.

Yeti Airlines completes nine years

Yeti Airlines completes nine years
ArthaExpress, 24-Sep-2007

Yeti Airlines, one of the leading Nepali domestic airlines, has completed its nine years of operation.

The Airlines has consistently been ahead in terms of delivery of service and growth, states a press issued here by the airlines today.

Yeti airlines with more than 60 per cent of the total market share has the widest domestic flight network. It fly to almost all the destinations in Nepal, claims the company.

Yeti Airlines serves people living in far-flung mountain areas by providing the only
means of transportation and connecting the outside world. It also provides convenient connections to the cities and town of Nepal.

Yeti Airlines has received permission for international operations in 2007. It also plans for more expansion, adds the press release issued here by the Airlines.