Buddha Air starts flying Kathmandu-Lucknow

Buddha Air's maiden flight that is expected to hugely support the national campaign of bringing one million tourists this year, to Lucknow took off today.
"Buddha Air is flying with its 47-seater ATR-42 aircraft on Kathmandu-Lucknow-Kathmandu route from today,” said Birendra Bahadur Basnet, managing director of the Buddha Air.
“It is flying every Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays to Lucknow," he said, adding that the three scheduled flights every week on the Kathmandu-Lucknow-Kathmandu route will help ease the pressure of the air travellers as Lucknow has a very good connectivity to other Indian cities. "The fare ranges from Rs 5,600 to Rs 10,400 for class A, B, C and Y class."
Lucknow is the second international flight of the Buddha Air that has already started flying to Paro, Bhutan.
Air traffic between India and Nepal is growing at 13 per cent to 14 per cent a year, according to the latest figures. The tourist arrivals data reveals that the Indian tourist arrivals increased by 19.5 per cent in December.
Earlier, Buddha Air was planning to start Pokhara-Lucknow flight as part of its cross-border commercial scheduled operation but due to technical reasons, it could not start the flight on the route. "Instead of Pokhara-Lucknow route, we have started the Kathmandu-Lucknow route,” Basnet added.
By March, the airlines that has an asset of $30 million is planning to start flights to Kolkata as it has got permission to operate flights to four Indian cities -- Lucknow, Kolkata, Varanasi and Patna by the Indian authorities.
It also has plans to fly to other Indian cities like Guwahati, Gorakhpur and Deharadun.
Meanwhile, Buddha Air is also planning Pokhara-New Delhi flight as part of its cross-border commercial scheduled operation to the various Indian cities.
The national flag carrier Nepal Airlines operates flights to New Delhi but could not continue its flights due to lack of aircraft as it has only two age-old Boeing 757s and faces maintenance problems most of the time.
Budget airline Cosmic Air, which had started flights to Delhi and Kolkata and triggered a price war in 2005, grounded due to a fund crunch.
One of the largest private airliners in the country, Buddha Air owns a fleet of five just off the factory Beechcraft 1900D and three ATR 42 – 320 (Avions de Transport Régional or Aerei da Trasporto Regionale). It has recently added one 70-seat ATR 72-500 known to be the best aircraft with turbo-prop engines. The airline flies to nine destinations in the country.