‘Mountain Flight’ diminishes
There has been a massive decrements on the mountain flights taking off from Kathmandu in recent days. The decremented resulted after the earthquake of April 2015. Mountain flights began decreasing right after the quake.
Mountain flights make a very good income for the private airliners of Nepal operating regular flights. Also the mountain flights have been a prominent choice among the destinations that private airliners of Nepal provide for tourists visiting in Nepal for tourism. However, with the decrements in the number of tourists visiting Nepal after the earthquake also the tourists interested in mountain flight have greatly decreased.
The number of mountain flights done by domestic airlines of Nepal Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines and Simrik Airlines decreased vastly this year. The number of mountain flights done by these airlines from May 2015 to May 2016 is 998 while the number of mountain flights done by the same airlines from May 2014 to May 2015 was 2,243 according to member of committee of air service operator in Nepal and Marketing Manager of Buddha Air Rupesh Joshi.
The committee of air service operators also believes that the mountain flight of the airlines after earthquake has decreased by a massive 57 percentage. This adverse situation can be recovered only if the number of tourists visiting Nepal increases in 2016.
The close up view of the mountains and sights of natural beauty of Nepal is the main reason of tourists being attracted towards mountain flight. The four or five regular flights of mountain flight of each of the airlines reduced to none after the earthquake according to Joshi. More than hundreds of the monthly mountain flights of the airlines decreased to zero and even though the number of tourists visiting Nepal after earthquake is slightly increasing the numbers of mountain flights have not increased he added.
The ratio of mountain flights decreased by 57.28% compared to last year to this year from May 2015 to April 2016. Buddha Air did 361 flights in this duration while it flew 780 flights last year in the same duration. Similarly, Yeti Airlines flew 438 of these flights in the duration this year while it had flown 760 flights last year before earthquake. And similarly Simrik airlines flew 169 flights after earthquake in the duration this year while it had flown 703 mountain flights last year before quake according to the statistics prepared by the committee.
The mega earthquake and economic blockade following it caused a significant decrements in the market occupancy of the domestic airlines and also resulting decrements in the number of mountain flights. Seven different private domestic airlines operating from Tribhuvan International Airport suffered the decrements in their market occupancy except for Nepal Airlines.
Private airlines and helicopter services that flew 1 million 450 thousand travelers last year in 2014 flew a decreased figure of 1 million 364 thousand travelers this year according to the office in the airport of Tribhuvan International Airport. The airport makes account of only the flights taking off and landing to and from Tribhuvan International Airport.
Member of the committee and Marketing Director of Simrik airlines Prajwal Thapa also told that the earthquake of April and economic instability after it caused the decrements in flights of all the airlines operating in Nepal.
