KATHMANDU, AUGUST 13

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has lifted the suspension on certain airline companies that have cleared outstanding dues.

Earlier, the regulator had suspended the commercial operations of Simrik Air, Fishtail Air, Prabhu Helicopters, and Mountain Helicopters Pvt Ltd from Friday onwards after the companies did not clear their accounts before the end of the last fiscal year.

According to CAAN, the measures were taken after the four companies were late in making payments of over Rs 21.3 million in total.

'The suspension placed on Simrik Air, Prabhu Helicopters, and Fishtail Air, among other companies, has been lifted after they paid their dues, while other companies are also expected to follow the same soon,' Gyanendra Bhul, information officer at CAAN, shared, adding that similar action will be taken against fixedwing airline companies for the same under the existing rules.

Six airline companies - Guna Airlines, Summit Air, Shree Airlines, Tara Air, Saurya Airlines, and Sita Air - have total outstanding dues amounting to over Rs 129 million.

Meanwhile, airline operators have termed the authority's action as a 'stunt to tarnish the credibility of private companies that have been engaged in the sector for decades'.

According to the operators, the outstanding amount is not as huge when compared to the millions that a private company pays the authority annually.

The delay in making payments can be attributed to the untimely delivery of bills by CAAN's offices in rural areas, operators claim.

'Although we make regular payments to the authority, payment of some bills received from rural airports takes time as they need to be verified and corrected. As many of our flights take place in Lukla and Kathmandu airports, we had due amounting up to Rs 1.5 million for Lukla Airport and Rs 2.7 million for Tribhuvan International Airport, which were settled on August 6 and 10, respectively. Despite that, the delay in payments of outstanding balances was circulated to the media to lower our credibility,' Murali Dhar Joshi, general manager of Simrik Air told THT.

According to Bhul, any airline company is liable for payments after using the regulator's services within 60 days.

'The airline companies are required to make all payments within the last day of the fiscal year. After receiving the list of unpaid dues of the last fiscal from the Financial Department of CAAN, the director general of the authority had decided to suspend all services and flights for the listed companies other than for rescue operations,' he said.

Meanwhile, Dil Bahadur Woli, general manager of Mountain Helicopters, shared that the increase in charges to be paid to the authority alongside loss of business over the past three years following the spread of COVID-19 has weighed on helicopter companies resulting in outstanding dues.

'As the tourism sector was heavily affected due to COV- ID-19, our operations suffered due to a lack of tourists. On top of that, the authority increased the charge for overtime flights and meteorology for each flight which increased the costs for certain companies. Given the difficult circumstances, we had requested the authority for some time to clear our outstanding dues as the tourism sector started to see a steady flow of tourists in 2023,' Woli said.

'We have also sent a commitment letter to CAAN requesting to give us two months to repay all the existing dues. We were also allowed to operate flights on Friday after paying some of our dues,' he added.

Woli also pointed out the need to upgrade the CAAN's mechanism of collecting bills from its offices in rural areas as it takes years just to receive them, which is also the cause of such outstanding balances.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 14, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.