Only Tara Air has submitted additional flights plan

KATHMANDU, Sept 22: Major airline operators have flouted the government´s directions to submit their additional flights plan to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) had directed domestic airlines to provide details of their additional flight plans to the aviation sector regulator by Friday.

“However, only Tara Air submitted its additional flight plans to us within the given time-frame,” Subash Jha, manager of CAAN, said.

Officials of Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines said they cannot provide details to CAAN as till now they don´t have any plan of adding flights.

As per the details submitted by Tara Air, the airline is adding three flights on Kathmandu-Lamidanda sector on October 2 and 9 and a flight on Kathmandu-Rumjatar sector on October 8. Similarly, Tara Air has said a Twin Otter will be serving the western region from Nepalgunj as per the demand.

Rupesh Joshi, executive manager of Buddha Air, said the direction is only for airlines operating in the remote sector. “We don´t have to submit details as we operate on trunk sector,” he added.

According to Joshi, Buddha Air will operate additional one flight a day on Kathmandu-Bhadrapur on the seventh, eighth and ninth day of Dashain.  “We might add flights to Biratnagar if there is demand,” he added.

Organizing a meeting of airline operators on Tuesday, the MoCTCA had asked domestic airlines to forward their additional flights plan to CAAN by Friday.

“In the meeting, all the operators had agreed to submit their additional flights plan to CAAN,” Jha said.

Roshan Regmi, group marketing manager for Yeti Airlines and Tarai Air, said they have not decided about adding additional flights for Yeti Airlines. “We might add flights if there is good traffic,” he added.

To make certain that the passengers do not suffer during the festive season, MoCTCA has also directed managers of Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Surkhet and Kathmandu airports to make sure airline companies operate flights that they have promised.

“I don´t think there is much load this year as trunk operators have not submitted their additional flights plan to us,” Jha said. “We will penalize airline companies if they add flights without informing us.” 

Original article:  http://www.myrepublica.com