Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has regained top spot at carrying international passenger among international carriers of the country and among other international carriers operating flights to Nepal.
Around 31 carriers including NAC, Himalaya Airlines and Buddha Air of Nepal operate international flights from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
Nepal airlines carried around 491 thousand passenger in 2018. NAC performed around 3554 flights in international sector in the year 2018 and covered around 11.32 % in international flights from TIA. It was just 9% in 2017.
NAC was at 3rd position in first half of 2018 at carrying international passenger but with the arrival of the new wide-body aircraft, the airline managed to retain top position by the end of the year.
NAC was at top position in 2016. However in 2017, the airline was in 3rd position after selling of one of the Boeing and one aircraft being grounded in New Delhi for long time.
Sugat Ratna Kansakar, Managing Director of NAC stated that the arrival of the wide-body A330 was the main reason to bring NAC in top spot from 3rd.
NAC has not been able to fully operate its wide-body aircraft and if the airline manages to do so, the airline is set to cover around 18% market share, stated Kansakar.
Jet airways of India which came 1st in 2017 fell back to 2nd position in 2018 and carried around 450 thousand passenger in the year in 3138 flights. Qatar airways came in 3rd position by carrying more than 399 thousand passenger in 2910 flights.
Fly Dubai, Air India and Air Arabia came in 4th, 5th and 6th position respectively.
Himalaya Airline, a private carrier of the country came in 7th position as it flew 1770 flights carrying 224 thousand passenger whereas Buddha Air, leading domestic carrier of Nepal which has been operating flights to Banaras in India provided service to 4396 passenger.
