National flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has completed flight preparation to China. The corporation has made preparation to operate flights to Guangzhou as planned before.
The airline will be operating flights to Guangzhou Baiyun International airport and all the process to commence the fight has been completed.
An official of the airline stated that all the documentation process for the flight has been completed and the corporation will be operating flights to neighboring country with the wide-body Airbus A330 series aircraft.
The corporation has already provided all required documents to Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) who previously hadn’t provided Airline Operator’s Certificate (AOC) to Nepal Airlines for the flight.
The corporation is hopeful to receive the permission from CAAC as the Chinese counterpart has also been positive to the corporation’s proposal and CAAC is expected to respond within less than 2 weeks.
NAC hasn’t received flight permission since 5 years of application request to the Chinese government although the air service agreement (ASA) between Nepal and China government has already been established.
The flight schedules and booking will be opened after getting permission from CAAC.
NAC had also prepared to commence flights to Japan from early June however, the corporation has now postponed the flights till end of August or early September due to very low bookings rate contradicting to the expectation of the management.
NAC used to operate flights to China 10 years ago and even gave flight permission to Nepal with the right to fifth-class traffic freedom. However, the corporation stopped china’s flights following decrease in the number of aircraft.
In 2002, it was mentioned in the review of old bilateral agreement that Nepalese airlines can conduct up to 14 flights weekly. It was agreed to operate up to 70 flights in a week later.
In a contract between the two countries, it was agreed that both countries can operate equal number of flights.
At present, 6 airlines from China namely Air China, Cathay Dragon, China eastern, China Southern, Sichuan and Tibet Airlines are operating flights to Kathmandu. However, no any Nepali airlines are flying to China.
As per the ASA, Nepal can operate flights to 7 cities of China with total of 70 flights. The agreement includes flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Lhasa, Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu and Xian.
The corporation stated that the flight commencement to China would be helpful in supporting ‘Visit Nepal 2020’ Campaign.
The corporation currently operates international flights to Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kuala lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Doha and Dubai. The corporation is also preparing to operate flights to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and in Seoul, South Korea.
