Honorable Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) Mr. Rabindra Adhikari received the Council President Award at ICAO headquarter, Montreal, Canada. Minister Adhikari reported that ICAO has removed Nepal from the blacklist however, blacklisting from European Union (EU) is yet to be removed.
Team from EU is set to arrive Nepal on September this year for the assessment of the progress made by the aviation industry of Nepal and also discuss the probability of lifting the long run ban on Nepali carriers. The government of Nepal is expecting positive decision from EC this time.
Adhikari also added that they are pretty sure about the EU lifting ban on Nepali carriers within 3 months as ICAO has already removed from the Significant Safety Concern (SSC) list.
CAA Nepal had already dispatched the some reports on progress made by Nepali aviation to the European Commission (EC) for discussing the aviation safety issues of Nepal in a meet at Brussels, Belgium last November. However, EC has not lifted ban on Nepali Airline operators pointing out the issues in air operating certificate, training and licensing and CAAN’s institutional capacity.
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) Council President awarded Nepal with Council President Certificate in recognition of Nepal’s achievement in resolving its safety oversight deficiencies and significantly improving its effective implementation of ICAO safety standards and policies.
An ICAO Validation Mission in July first week last year had made comprehensive assessment of CAAN, focusing on flight operations and airworthiness and major oversight areas relating to aircraft operations, including legislation and organization. Consequently, ICAO had removed Nepal’s aviation sector from ICAO blacklist.
