Nepal Airlines to resume Everest view mountain flights:
KATHMANDU, NOV 16 - After a 17-year hiatus, the Nepal Airlines Corporation is set to operate mountain flights. The national flag carrier plans to resume mountain flights with the Chinese-made MA60 plane whose test flight was conducted on Saturday.
Government officials including Chief Secretary Leela Mani Paudyal, NAC officials, and journalists boarded the plane from Kathmandu to Mt Everest, sightseeing along the Himalayan range.
'Following test flights, we and our technical team concluded that mountain flights are feasible with the Chinese-made plane,' said Madan Kharel, managing director of the NAC.
'We will start commercial flights in four months when another MA 60 plane arrives [from China].' He added that at least two aircraft are necessary to ensure the reliability of the service.
The NAC abandoned the lucrative business in the early 1990s when its AVRO plane phased out and had no other aircraft suitable for the purpose.
'It is necessary to run mountain flights for our commercial success,' said Kharel. The NAC is buying five other Chinese-made planes and two Airbus planes.
Currently, Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines and Simrik Airlines operate mountain flights. The NAC move is likely to cause fare cuts. 'We will offer competitive rates but are yet to discuss the matter,' said Kharel.
Buddha Air charges $204 per passenger on mountain flight. Rupesh Joshi, senior executive manager at Buddha Air, said the reliability of the airliner and the aircraft is crucial in the sector.
Joshi said that the business was affected this year after the European Commission blacklisted Nepal, questioning the country's air safety standard. A majority of the tourists going on mountain flights are westerners.
According to Joshi, the maximum daily average passenger flow for mountain flights is 400, which drops to 50 in the off season. ......
Ekantipur
