-KATHMANDU
National flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) international flights have increased by way more than cent percent. According to the corporation, in fiscal year 2073/74 there was 3,358 international flights. The number was 2736 in year 2072/73 and 1559 in 2071/72.
Spokesperson of NAC Mr. Rabindra Shrestha told that the international flights have increased by 125 % in comparison to last 3 years. The reason that led to such increment was due to increase in flights as per high market demand and also due to passengers got to travel to international destinations easily at low fares, he added.
In 2017, the corporation took 4 hundred thousand passengers to international destination. Before 5-6 years, the corporation took only around 2 hundred thousand passengers. The corporation now has 10 % share in Nepali Aviation sector which before was around 5-7%.
The corporation has currently been flying to New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kuala lumpur, Bangkok, and Dubai, Qatar, Doha and Hong Kong with one 190 seater Boeing B757-200 series aircraft and two 158 seater A320-200 series aircraft.
In domestic sector there is also normal increase in flights number. 4358 domestic flights was conducted in fiscal year 2073-74 which was 3149 in year 2072/73 and 4238 in year 2071/72. For domestic sector the corporation has been flying with two 56 seater Modern Arc MA-60 series aircraft, four 19 seater Harbin Y12-e aircraft of China and two 19 seater twin-otter from Canada. But most of the aircraft are grounded due to technical problems and insufficient pilots.
According to the corporation, 5 lakh 73 thousand eight hundred 60 seats were available on the international flight in fiscal year 073/74 from which 4 lakh 22 thousand 647 passengers flew to various destination with 11,30,699 kilograms of cargo. Last year, around 4, 69,570 seats were available but only 3, 44, 540 passengers were taken with 10, 80, 625 kilogram of cargo. In 071/72 the seats available was 2, 87, 718 and 2, 19, 973 passengers were taken to their destination. The cargos in domestic flights have however decreased. Three years back, 64, 764 kg cargo was carried which decreased to 46, 686 kg a year later and 55, 245 kg in last fiscal year.
Last year, the corporation’s international flight reliability was 98% and 98.2 percent in the previous year. Also the flight punctuality was 75.8%. The flight occupancy rate of the corporation in Doha sector is 88.1%, 85.5% in Hong Kong sector, 83% in Kuala Lumpur, 83.4% in New Delhi, 67.8% in Mumbai and 69.7% in Dubai Sector.
The present seat occupancy of the corporation is nearly about an average percentage of 80 on each schedule flight which is noteworthy and is expected to increase in the future as it is in process of adding two wide-body aircraft to its fleet soon. Once these new wide-body aircraft are added to its fleet, NAC plans to conduct direct flights to Saudi Arabia, Korea and Japan.
Source: nagariknews.com
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