Nepal , where only few people supposed to travel using the airlines but the fact is amazing yearly near 50000 people use the air way as their first medium to travel around the Nepal.

Tumlingtat Airport

Gautam Buddha Airport , Bhairawaha

Bharatpur Airport, Chitwan

Biratnagar Airport, Biratnagar

Chandragadi Airport, Bhadrapur, Jhapa

Dhangadi Airport, Dhangadi

Janakpur Airport, Janakpur

Jomsom Airport , Jomson

Jumla Airport, Jumla

Most Dangerous airport of Nepal, Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Lukla

Nepalgunj Airport, Nepalgunj

Pokhara Airport, Pokhara

Simikot Airport

Surkhet Airport

Tribhuvan International Airport, Domestic , Kathmandu

Nepal Airlines Sagarmatha-A320

Like the arrival of a new born baby to the family, the Nepalese community were overwhelmed by the arrival of a new fleet of national flag bearer international airplane at Tribhuwan International Airport on 8th February, Sunday, 2015. The plane named as “Sagarmatha” after the highest mountain of the world and pride of Nepal Mt.Everest received a grand welcome with traditional music, cultural ceremonies and fountain applause as per international practice.

The plane with Mathwer and Shrawan Rijal on the cockpit as the Pilot and Co-Pilot had Tourism Minister Deepak Chandra Amatya, NAC Chairman Shiva Sharan Neupane, NAC Managing Director Madab Kharel and engineers and officials from NAC and Civil Aviation authority of Nepal; who were the 18 on board passengers of the first flight of Sagarmatha from DOHA to KATHMANDU. At the hanger of TIA the welcome ceremony puja was conducted by the Managing Director Of NAC Madab Kharel.

The 158 seater Airbus A320-20 model airplane, will be starting its commercial flight from the end of this month. At current the flight will be connecting KATHMANDU and DELHI. A purchase of two same modeled airplanes was done with the French Airbus Company at the Airshow held at Qatar last year. The arrival of the next airplane is scheduled for April of 2015. The next airplane will be named after the birth place of Lord Buddha “Lumbini”.

Nepalese were excited by the 1st look of Sagarmatha on the video uploaded through “Hamburg Videos HD” channel on YouTube. The video has reached 13212 views in just 8 days with 150 likes which clearly indicates the excitement of Nepalese. The arrival of new fleet of airplanes produced by the leading manufacturer of airlines, Airbus; has added up new hopes and expectation over the overwhelming joy of a new national carrier. With the Airbus Company topping the security, comfort and economic standards of airlines manufacture, a new hope has developed in Nepalese of seeing NAC at the same height of success as its fellow organization “Thai Airways” established at the same year 1958. But on the other hand past technical and organizational failure of NAC is contradicting the expectations of general people.

At present NAC seems changing its policies and working in glorifying the sovereignty of the country by naming the planes after the prides of Nepal and giving a graphical enhancement to the tail logos but all will be revealed by time whether is this an old wine in new bottle or something else. May the plane welcomed in a traditional way won`t be repaired too, in a traditional way with slaughter of animals as the previous plane repair procedures of NAC.

In most of the cases, people choosing  flight is secondary. Else, people usually get east to west with in more or less 24 hours in extreme cases. The better way comes if you have your private vehicle or you rent for your self. The common example of people travel in flights are:

– Emergency
Most flights taken by people are due to emergency. The emergency of medical treatment, emergency to attain events. We can imagine people don’t usually have pre-planned for such kind of travel. Due to this they might got problem to get ticket, even if they get they usually have to pay more than normal fare.

– Business Trip
We can say business trip are regular travelers. They even take same day two way flight. With the well travel management and tie up with Travel Agency, they often get comfortable trip. But due to the travel crises they may face problems in flight changes, cancellations and missed flights.

– Politicians Trip
As Business trip politicians use regular flight. They have same issues as Business people.

– Holiday Trip
When city based people get their time to have some recreational activity and want to go for different activities like paraglayding, rafting, hiking, jungle safari, trekking. And due to limitation of time frame they usually take flight to reach nearby destination. This kind of flight is very few, and most of the activities are focused for foreign tourist. So Nepalese tourist might face problem due to priority.

From above we can conclude, Flight is not in first place of people’s choice. And When they need it, they faced lot of unexpected problems. Here I listed very common problems we may faced.

– Few number of Airport
There are all together 44 airports, which means there are lot of districts without airports. Among 44, only 24 is functioning. With in 24 only 11 are trunk route which is regular. It means if you want to go for other destination than trunk route, there is the high probability not to getting flight easily, delayed or canceled.

– Few number of flight, aircraft and airlines.
In Nepal there are 3 major airlines and among them, Yeti and Buddha are flying for maximum destination. So it may cause single flight in week.

– Weather situation 
The main reason for travel crises is because of weather situation. The variation of weather between different region might cause unconditional crises.

– Short Take of Landing [STOL]
Most of Nepal airports are considered STOL because they are located in a valley between high mountains or even on the mountains , so their runway is too short, their runway slope too high or they need complicate procedures to operate. Flight are not regularly scheduled and not guaranteed.

– Difference on Fair
There are two different cost for Nepali Tourist(same for India Tourist) and Foreign Tourist, it’s not usual but some travel agency may act as per their need to get maximum foreign fair to get maximum commission.

– Information Crises 
The worst things happen if you were not informed about your delayed flight or canceled. The airlines don’t give you proactive notice. even some time people loose their refund by missing deadlines.

– Service Classification 
For the Nepalese traveler, there are different class of ticket with different rate of fair but the bitter part is there is not any such classification in service inside plane.

The better way to prevent from this problems is better preparation for your trip. I suggest you should know about all these problems. Most of the problem’s solutions are not in your hand but there might be few that you should try your self. At least you can book your ticket your self : http://nepflights.com . See if there any tickets available or not? Compare the fair. Pay yourself. And the best thing maintain enough time.

1) Nepal aviation history date back to 1949 when first ever single aircraft landed in tiny cow Pasters in Sinamangal, Kathmandu which is today’s “Tribhuvan International Airport”.

2) King Mahendra inaugurated Gauchar Airport and renamed it as Tribhuvan Airport in 1955.

3) Tribhuvan International Airport Grassy runway transformed into a concrete one in 1957.

4) The 3750 feet long runway extended to 6600 feet  in 1967 and 10000 feet in 1975.

In this post, we will have overview look in relation to history of Nepal Airlines , which was established in July 1958 as Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation with one Douglas DC-3. At the beginning, its services were limited to Simara, Pokhara, Biratnagar and Indian cities such as Patna, Calcutta and Delhi. In 1961,  Pilatus Porter STOL aircraft joined the fleet, and in 1963 12-seater Chinese Fong Shou-2 Harvesters  were brought into service, opening up the kingdom’s more remote routes.

In 1966, a turboprop Fokker F27 was added to the airline’s fleet. In 1970, RNAC acquired its first Hawker Siddley HS-748 followed by Twin Otters in 1971 and Boeing 727s in 1972. Two Boeing 757s gradually replaced the airline’s Boeing 727s in 1987.

In September 2007, the airline confirmed that it had sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god—following technical problems with one of its aircraft. Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane, a Boeing 757, at Tribhuvan International Airport. The offering was made to Akash Bhairab, the Hindu god of sky protection, whose symbol is seen on the company’s aircraft.

In 2009, at the Dubai Airshow, Nepal Airlines signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus to acquire one A330-200 and one A320-200. The A330 will be used on flights to Japan and Europe, and the A320 will operate flights to the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has resumed a direct flight from Kathmandu to Taplejung after 25 years.

Taplejung Airport in-charge Hemant Upreti informed that flights carrying nine passengers from Kathmandu and 17 passengers from Taplejung were operated on Thursday.

The national flag carrier will provide flight service to Taplejung every Thursday, informed the corporation. Earlier, the NAC provided flight service once a week from Biratnagar to Kathmandu on Sundays. The NAC said the flights were resumed following requests from tourism entrepreneurs and locals.

On the first day, the locals welcomed the pilots with flower garlands and Khada, a traditional cloth garland. The NAC also informed that the fare regulated for the 55 minute flight from Kathmandu to Taplejung is Rs. 6,200.

The NAC, which has only one airplane at its disposal, further informed that the number of flights will be increased as soon as new airplanes are added.

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will be buying new planes for the first time in 26 years. On Thursday, the governments of Nepal and China signed a grant and concessional loan agreement worth Rs 6.67 billion (408 million RMB) to procure six aircraft. Two of the planes will arrive within three months and join the carrier’s domestic fleet which now consists of one vintage Twin Otter.