There’s no doubt that Nepal Airlines has made quite a comeback! With two new Airbus A320’s (total fleet of four), the airlines has done wonders by clinching the top spot in international passenger occupancy by flying 275,701 travellers during the first nine months of 2016. That’s an increase by a massive 74.63% growth. The airline hopes to introduce a two wide-bodied Airbus A330-200 aircraft into its fleet and add new destinations as well as resume flights to London by 2018.
“As per our assessment, the Kathmandu-London route is the most profitable route which we have planned to resume,” said Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NAC to The Kathmandu Post. Unfortunately, Nepal has still not made it out of the European Commission’s (EC) air safety list which means that Nepali carriers will not be able to fly in the European airspace. The EC added Nepal on its list three years ago in December 2013 citing poor safety record.
The first Airbus A330-200 is expected for January 2018. The airline also hopes to connect Kathmandu to Seoul in South Korea, Sydney in Australia, Tokyo in Japan and Dammam in Saudi Arabia!
We’ll have to wait and see if Nepal is able to make it off EC’s air safety list. Unfortunately, the most recent audit still didn’t help in taking Nepal off the list. Hopefully, it gave good recommendations and areas for Nepali Aviation to work on to improve its record.
It would be lovely to fly Nepal Airlines from London to Kathmandu. I’m guessing the day is not far off but maybe 2018 might be too soon? Let’s see!
Nepal Airlines began flying high after inducting two new Airbus A320 aircraft into its fleet in 2015.
It resumed flights to Dubai, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi soon after acquiring the new jets, and now serves eight international destinations. The carrier has been able to boost its market share on international routes to 11 percent.
