2016; Prosperous year for Domestic airlines in Nepal
March 26, 2017
Domestic aviation sector of Nepal has revived strongly in 2016 serving all-time high air passengers. In the last four years, there was a constant fall in number of passengers but now the number has rocketed.
Travelers’ today prefer flying rather than driving due to the unsafe and poor highway conditions. According to the statistics from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the number of domestic air passenger climbed with 28.85 percent to 1.75 million passengers last year.
Domestic airlines obtained 393,548 more passengers in comparison to 2015 out of which 27,893 passengers were served by nine domestic helicopter operators.
Domestic airlines of Nepal are attracting more passengers especially in the trunk route sector with introduction of offers that includes discount fare buckets and adjustment of airfare according to market demand. This type of initiation has boosted airlines occupancy up to 90 percent. Moreover, the increase in domestic and foreign tourist has also aided the domestic airlines.
Air passenger movement declined from 2012 to 2015 frustrating the domestic airlines. This trend ended when Nepalese sky saw 73,876 flights during 2016 which was 12.16 percent more than that in 2015.
Statistics from TIA showed an average of 200 domestic flight operations operated per day in 2016. Buddha Air achieved a milestone of serving over a million passengers. Buddha flew 1.01 million passengers in 2016 which is the highest so far by an individual airline in aviation industry of Nepal.
After Buddha, Yeti Airlines saw the passenger growth of 22.83 percent and flew 408,693 numbers of passengers in 2016. The subsidiary of Yeti, Tara Air which only serves remote sectors flew 70,583 passengers last year observing growth of 45.62 percent.
Saurya Airlines flew 90,205 passengers with growth rate of 3.76 percent in 2016. It had started its operation in November 2014. Likewise, Simrik Airlines had a passenger growth of 5.97 percent and flew 48,887 passengers in total.
Nepal Airlines flew 48,120 passengers with growth rate of 13.13 percent and 19,328 passengers traveled with Sita Air which saw 64.35 percent of passenger growth.
Goma Air saw the passenger growth of 4.47 percent and served 32,416 passengers. The airline started its operation from October 2014 with LET 410 aircraft.
