Nepal Airlines is concerned about the revenue loss from cutting their Kathmandu-Delhi flights’ schedules. The airline relies heavily on the sector for a continuous cash cow, so their changes come at a bad time during the peak tourist season. This results in gains amounting to millions of rupees.
From 14 to 10
Kathmandu Airlines wants the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal to reconsider its decision to cut the airline’s weekly Kathmandu-Delhi schedule from 14 to 10 flights. The airline is facing a significant dip in revenue and must now take on the cost of rerouting passengers.
As reported by The Himalayan Times, the airline is suffering losses of up to $693,000 a week from flights that are operated less frequently.
It was a high-earning period for NAC; in fact, when it ran at full capacity, the company had been able to operate two Kathmandu-Delhi flights per day that had been near full occupancy.
The reason behind this is the Aviation Authority’s efforts to reduce congestion at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, and instead positioning some flights to Gautam Buddha International Airport which has become an international airport and is situated around 300 km outside of Kathmandu.
Another International Airport
CAAN is encouraging use of Gautam Buddha International airport by asking Nepal Airlines to move some Delhi-bound flights there. The authority’s Information Officer, Gyanendra Bhul, said that it was compelled to cut the airline’s schedule out of KTM for not properly committing to operations there.
Nepal Airline decided to reduce its Delhi (DEL) schedule out of KTM on October 30th. This change came as a surprise to some passengers who had already booked flights with the carrier.
More than 250 passengers were stranded at Tribhuvan International Airport on October 30th when a Delhi-bound Nepal Airlines flight was denied permission for take-off. The flight wasn’t scheduled to be a part of that day’s schedule, so the airport was unable to accept clearance and take-off.
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The NAC had the clearance they needed to take off for Delhi in the morning, but was not able to conduct flights in the afternoon because of a lack of flight. Instead, they simply handed out boarding passes for an unscheduled flight that would be arriving soon. This caused many problems for people, including delaying security and causing unnecessary confusion for passengers. However, we’ve sought clarification from the NAC on this topic within 24 hours and will be writing another article about their response shortly.
Reluctance to move to new airport
Nepal Airlines is unwilling to conduct any flights from Gautam Buddha International Airport because of the low demand. Unfortunately, this means that business won’t be running smoothly and targets will not be met by March 2019 when the new airport is scheduled to open.
The decision making process of the airline industry in Nepal has become difficult following many airlines significantly reducing their services. Domestic airlines such as Jazeera Airways are at a disadvantage, and the result is likely to be passengers choosing international flights.
When another airline company decides to offer flights to GAMBIA, it must be because they’re confident in the airport’s safety.
Air India has taken its four flights from Delhi back up until it can determine the future viability of starting services from Buddha International Airport.