Losing their shares; Domestic Airlines
22 April, 2016 – The evaluation of the regular flights done by 7 different airlines of Nepal in 2015 shows that the share of airlines operating in the domestic sector of Nepal are deteriorating except for the share of Nepal Airlines and Goma Air. The introduction of two new Czech turboprops LET 410 by Goma Air and the import of 2 new aircraft’s MA 60 and Y-12 for Nepal Airlines aided the respective airlines to sustain their contribution in the share of the Domestic sector. However the rest of airlines concluded that the decrease in the number of air travelers in year 2015 made them lose their share on this sector this year.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), Tribhuvan International Airport Office provided the report that total of 1 Million 364 Thousands of travelers flew on the domestic airlines and helicopters for air 2015. And this figure was slightly high for last year i.e. 2014 reaching the travelers count of 1 Million 450 Thousands. The CAAN office of the airport counts only the passengers flying into and out of Tribhuvan International Airport.
According to Director of Airlines Operation Council of Nepal and Sales and Marketing Manager of Simrik Airlines Prajol Thapa, the big earthquake of April last year in addition to the unofficial economic blockade imposed by India afterwards are the major factors that caused the decrements in the domestic sector flights for all the airlines which have domestic operations in Nepal. The airlines which only fly on the Touristic regions of Nepal suffered a significant loss because of the limited number of tourists visiting Nepal due to above two reasons.
Buddha Air which carries the major share of domestic travelers flew total 734 Thousands of passengers in 2015 while it flew 799 Thousands of passengers in 2014. Similarly the second major airline Yeti Airlines operating the scheduled flights inside Nepal flew 332 Thousand passengers while it had flown 409 Thousands passengers in 2014.
Similarly Tara Air which served 77 Thousands of passengers in 2014 served only 48 Thousands passengers in 2015. Simrik Air which served 82 Thousand passengers in 2015 served only 46 Thousands passengers in 2015. However Nepal Airlines which welcomed only 34 Thousands passengers in 2014 welcomed 42 Thousand passengers with an improvement. Sita Air which flew 11 Thousands 300 passengers in 2014 flew 11 Thousand 700 passengers in 2015.
With the introduction of brand new multi-engine turboprops Goma Air entered the service of Nepal aviation industry in 2015 and recorded a very healthy share in the competition with other airline. This airline welcomed 31 Thousands of travelers in 2015 while it had welcomed only 6 Thousands travelers in 2014. This count does not include the number of passenger it served with its single-engine aircraft’s. CAAN Office, Airport has not kept any records of the number of passengers flying in single-engine aircraft’s of Goma Air, Makalu Air and Air Kasthamandap. The passenger count of Saurya Airlines is also missing in the count in the list of the airlines by CAAN.
Buddha Air covers a share of 58.90% this year while it only covered 56% last year in the domestic operation of the airlines. Buddha Air lies in the top of the list while other airlines position keep changing in the Nepali Aviation Service industry.
Yeti Airlines is limited to a share of 26% this year while it covered 28% of share the last year. The fall in the number of domestic travelers caused the decrements in the share of the Airlines according to the officials.
