China Southern to operate daily direct flights from September 1

China Southern Airlines is operating daily direct flights between Guangzhou (China) and Kathmandu (Nepal) from Thursday.
Organising a special programme in Kathmandu on Friday, officials of China Southern Airlines announced that the airline is going to operate daily flight between Guangzhou and Kathmandu from September 1.
"We will fly to Kathmandu two times a day from October," deputy sales manager at China Southern Airlines office in Nepal, Dhiraj Shrestha, said on the occasion.
Almost all the foreign carriers, including China Southern Airlines, were forced to suspend their flights to Nepal after last year's devastating earthquake and also aviation fuel shortage due to five-month blockade by India.
However, the Chinese airliner is now planning to increase the flight frequency considering the growing number of Chinese tourists in Nepal also due to the festival season, he said. "We are extending the number of flights because of increment in passenger frequency and major festivals," added Shrestha.
The airline is currently operating three flights a week from Guangzhou to Kathmandu with Airbus A319 aircraft. Four Chinese airlines are operating flights to Kathmandu at present.
China is also the second largest tourist source market for Nepal. Since the Chinese carrier is planning to double the flight frequency, an increased flight is expected to contribute to raise the number of Chinese tourists which decreased by 28 per cent in the first six months of 2016, according to the Department of Immigration.
Country-wise, arrivals from India increased by 37.62 per cent to 54,224 in the first six months of this year.  However, arrivals from China decreased by 28 per cent to 33,991, though Nepal has also started issuing on-arrival free visa for Chinese tourists to boost arrivals from the northern neighbour since January.
During the programme, China Southern Airlines also awarded best travel agents based in Kathmandu.
According to the company that has served over 110 million passengers worldwide till 2015, it has 90 travel agents within Nepal.
Nepal received 313,512 tourists in the first half of 2016, against 277,992 in the same period a year ago. Despite the rise, the arrivals are still low as compared to previous years.
In 2014, the country had received 412,461 tourists in the first six months, according to the department, the tourist arrivals to Nepal fell to a six-year low of 538,970 in 2015 too. Nepal had received 251,148 less tourists last year, representing a sharp drop of 31.78 percent, compared to the 2014 figure.

China Southern Airlines increases Kathmandu-Guangzhou flight frequency

China Southern Airline -- a SkyTeam member airlines -- increased its flight frequency to six flights a week on Kathmandu-Guangzhou route from today.
"It will fly everyday, except Tuesdays, on the route from today," the airlines said.Earlier, China Southern Airline was operating only three flight -- Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays -- in a week on Kathmandu-Guangzhou route.
"As Nepal is celebrating Nepal Tourism Year 2011, the addition of the flight frequency will help the airlines to bring more Chinese tourists to Nepal," the airlines, said, adding that except China the airlines has very good connecting to all over the world via Guangzhou.
There are over two dozen international airlines flying to Nepal, which broungt record number of tourists -- some 448,769 in 2010 by air that is 18.5 per cent higher compared to 2009.From China alone, December registered a robust growth of 24.4 per cent in visitor arrivals by air.
"Not only Chinese, tourists, China Southern Airline brought many Korean and Japanese tourists to Nepal last year," it claimed.
"The airlines is operating 115-seater Airbus 319 on Kathmandu-Guangzhou route," the Chinese airlines said, adding that from last November it has introduced Premium economy class with 23 seats capacity. It now has eight business class, 23 premium class and 84 economy class on the route.
Currently, China Southern Airlines operated 400 modern Boeing 777, 747, 757, 737 and Airbus A330, 321, 320, 319 and 300 jet aircrafts that is ranked sixth in the world serving destinations to 884 cities in 169 countries -- forming an extensive network with Guangzhou as its hubs, covering all of China, radiating throughout Asia and linking Europe, America, Australia and Africa with convenient connections to all main cities in the world via close cooperation with all the SkyTeam member airlines.