POKHARA, Sept 26: Buddha Air has temporarily dropped its plan to introduce flights in two new sectors after one of its aircraft crashed on Sunday killing all 19 people on board.
Beginning Tuesday, the airline was all set to launch flights on Pokhara-Bhairahawa sector. It was also planning to introduce mountain flights from Pokhara from the very day.
“But after the crash of 9N AEK-B190 Beechcraft in Kotdanda hill, Lalitpur district, Sunday morning, we have cancelled the plan for now,” Gautam Baral, Buddha Air´s Pokhara station manager, told Republica.
One of the reasons behind the cancellation of the plan was shortage of aircraft, as the company is now left with only three small aircraft following Sunday´s accident.
“But we will begin flights on these sectors very soon,” Baral said, sounding very optimistic.
The private airline was planning to operate flights on Pokhara-Bhairahawa sector three days a week. It was also planning to introduce daily mountain flights from Pokhara.
The 15-minute Pokhara-Bhairahawa flight was aimed at domestic and Indian tourists, including pilgrims, who visit Bhairahawa before leaving for Pokhara and the holy site of Muktinath.
The mountain flights were aimed at tourists who wanted to shuttle around peaks like Dhaulagiri, Nilgiri, Ganesh and Annapurna range, and lakes like Tilicho. The company had fixed an airfare of $90 per person for half-hour mountain flights.
Buddha Air had started similar flights from Pokhara in 1999 but had later backed down citing shortage of aircraft.
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