Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Nepal Airlines announces resumption of Kathmandu-Dubai flight

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) today announced resumption of its flights on the Kathmandu-Dubai route starting from August 18, four years after it was suspended due to the lack of aircraft. The Kathmandu-Dubai operation was ceased in 2012.
NAC spokesperson Ram Hari Sharma said that the airlines would be conducting three flights per week – Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays – on the sector.
NAC is offering the lowest promotional airfares on the sector of Rs 25,000 one way and Rs 42,000 return. “We have not set a deadline to end the promo fares but even after the end of the scheme, we will be continuing to offer competitive fares,” he added.
The national flag career – during its heydays – used to fly to Amsterdam, Colombo, Dhaka, Frankfurt, Karachi, London, Osaka, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore and Vienna, besides five Indian cities of Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Patna. But it had cut the flights to all these destinations due to lack of aircraft.
It currently flies to Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Bangkok and only three cities in India including Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru.
Flying to UAE is profitable as it is the fourth largest destination for Nepali migrant workers. More than 200,000 Nepali migrant workers are estimated to be working in the UAE currently.  They send home nearly Rs 80 billion every year.
Likewise, the national flag carrier is also going to restart services to Guangzhou, the third largest city in South Central China, by September.
NAC plans to increase the number of destinations after it acquired two new Airbus A320 jets last year. "By the end of this year, we will be serving nine international routes compared to seven at present,” said Sharma.

NAC repays fifth installment of loan
Meanwhile, NAC has repaid Rs 323.61 million to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) today, the fifth installment of the Rs 10 billion loan it had taken to buy two new A320s. The airline has made loan repayments totalling Rs 1.59 billion so far. The loan matures in 15 years and NAC is required to make interest and installment payments on a quarterly basis.

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