Nepal Airlines to take off to Osaka after 12 years

The national flag carrier is resuming its flights to Japan after 12 years from tomorrow morning. The Airbus A330-200 series aircraft will be taking off at 2:30am on Thursday from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) to Osaka International Airport. The Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will fly to Osaka with 130 passengers – 90 commercial passengers and remaining 40 are representatives from NAC and Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation – according to the NAC spokesperson Ganesh Kumar Chand, who will be flying to Osaka with State Minister for tourism Dhan Bahadur Budha, joint secretary Suresh Acharya and six lawmakers.
NAC is offering Rs 36,999 per person for a one-way ticket to Osaka as a promotional offer, whereas roundtrip fare is fixed at Rs 72,814 per person, including value added tax (VAT), he said, adding that the NAC is flying three days a week – Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays – to Osaka. “It takes around six-and-a-half hours to reach Osaka from Kathmandu, whereas it will take around 8 eight hours to fly back to Kathmandu from Osaka.”
The NAC will operate direct passenger flights to Osaka with the Airbus A330-200.
Earlier, the NAC used to operate commercial flights on Kathmandu-Osaka route via Beijing twice a week between 1994 and 2007. But lack of aircraft, rising fuel price and lack of human resources forced the national flag carrier to halt the service 12 years ago. Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) permitted the corporation to resume its flight to Osaka after Nepal and Japan signed the Exchange of Notes on revising the Air Service Agreement (ASA) earlier this year.
Though, NAC had been planning to operate the Osaka flights from July 5, it started flights in August due to low flow of passengers till July-end. NAC, however, used to suspend flights to Japan during monsoon season when passenger flow declines 12 years ago too.
The NAC has targeted to fly some 63,000 Japanese tourists this year, according to the national flag carrier that is also preparing to operate direct flights to China and Saudi Arabia soon.
Currently, the national flag carrier is operating flights to 10 cities – including Dubai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Qatar and Osaka – of 8 countries with its 2 narrow-body and 2 wide-body Airbus.

NAC reopens booking for Osaka flights

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has opened bookings for Kathmandu-Osaka-Kathmandu flights. The national flag carrier is launching its scheduled flight to Osaka from August 29, though it had earlier announced to start Osaka flights from July 5 but had to postpone the flight citing poor bookings.
NAC is planning to operate Osaka flights three times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays – according to NAC that has fixed one-way flight fare at Rs 45,000 and Rs 75,000- Rs 90,000 for a round trip.
NAC is resuming direct flights to Osaka of Japan after aninterval of of 12 years. Although the nationa flag carrier carrier had started flying to Osaka via Shanghai in 1994, it had suspended the flight in 2007 citing shortage of aircraft. NAC had used Boeing 757 aircraft for Osaka flights at that time but now it is planning to fly with Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) permitted NAC to resume its flight to Osaka after Nepal and Japan signed Exchange of Notes on revising the Air Service Agreement earlier this year.
NAC has been operating scheduled flights to New Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Mumbai, and Bangalore with two Airbus A320-200s and two Airbus A330-200.

NAC plans Kathmandu-Narita flights

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is planning non-stop flights between Kathmandu and Narita, a city on the eastern outskirts of Tokyo in Japan.
The national flag carrier is holding talks with the visiting delegation of Narita International Airport Corporation (NIAC) of Japan today on operation of the flights between Kathmandu and Narita. Though, NAC wanted to fly to Tokyo after a decade, it could not get any slot at the Tokyo Airport and plans to fly to Narita.
A three-member team – of NIAC that manages the Narita airport facilities – led by vice president of aviation sales and marketing department of the airport Koji Takahashi arrived in Kathmandu today.
“As NAC has applied for a slot at Narita International Airport, the national flag carrier will hold discussions on the facilities and other areas of commercial operation," according to senior official at the Nepal Airlines Corporation that has last week applied for the slot and has been approved by the airport. "However, the NAC is still waiting to receive landing permission from the aviation regulator of Japan, Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB)."
The national flag carrier is planning to fly its two long-range Airbus A330 jets to Narita after it has revised air service agreement (ASA) on June 18. The revised ASA has increased the number of flights to seven-fold from twice weekly to 14 weekly flights with any type of aircraft on a reciprocal basis. The revised agreement has allowed NAC to fly to Narita International Airport, and also to Kansai International Airport, Osaka.
Though, NAC has been planning to restart flights to Japan, the process including safety checks, has been delaying the Kathmandu-Narita flight. "In the first phase, Kathmandu-Narita flight will be once a week," according to the NAC.
Earlier, Nepal Airlines had launched its services to Japan in 1994, flying to Osaka via Shanghai in China. But it was forced to suspend the flight in 2007 due to lack of aircraft.