Kathmandu, January 22

Two private airline companies, Buddha Air and Shree Airlines are preparing to add new destinations in the domestic sector.

Shree Airlines, which recently started operating fixed wing flights in the domestic sector, is preparing to operate a direct flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara. On January 20, Shree successfully conducted a test flight on the route.

According to Anil Manandhar, corporate manager of Shree Airlines, the regular commercial flights to Pokhara will begin soon after completing further processes of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).

“Technical officers will submit the report of our test flight to CAAN and based on the report it will allow us to begin our commercial flights,” he said, “We are planning to operate four to five flights a day in the Kathmandu-Pokhara route.”

Around 50 daily flights are operated from Pokhara Airport at the moment.

Currently Shree Airlines is flying to Bhadrapur, Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Dhangadhi, Nepalgunj, and Rajbiraj airports. The company is also operating mountain flights.

Amidst this, Buddha Air has also announced plans to expand its services to two new destinations. The company is adding Kathmandu-Rajbiraj and Pokhara-Biratnagar routes.

As per the company, daily flights in Kathmandu-Rajbiraj route will begin from February 1. Currently, only Shree Airlines is operating one flight a day from Kathmandu to Rajbiraj.

Meanwhile, in Pokhara-Biratnagar route, Buddha Air will operate three flights a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays from February 3.

Currently, Buddha Air is operating flights to Pokhara, Biratnagar, Bharatpur, Bhadrapur, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj, Dhangadhi, Surkhet, Janakpur, Simara, Tumlingtar and mountain flights in domestic sector. Meanwhile, it is also operating flights from Kathmandu to Varanasi in India.