Shashi Dhungel

Kathmandu, March 7:

Cosmic Air’s (CA) third Fokker 100 is all set to fly to new sectors as well as help increase the frequency of Cosmic Air flights in the present sectors, from March 15. The new Fokker will allow CA to add a third flight to New Delhi on a daily basis, instead of the current two flights a day, from March 27. “Cosmic has captured a market share of 32 per cent in a route where airlines like Jet Air, Sahara Airlines and two other national flag carriers like Indian Airlines and Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation are already operating. This has been achieved in just four months,” said R P Pradhan, executive chairman of SOI Group. Talking to The Himalayan Times, Pradhan said that the government’s aviation policy should be more flexible for encouraging private airlines.

However, he added, seat capacity, operational criteria and resources of an airlines are to be considered seriously before giving license to any airline. Today Nepal has the largest number of private airlines companies registered in the South Asian region, but private airlines are finding it difficult to sustain themselves due to unfavourable government policies. Talking about the sustainability of Cosmic Air on the Kathmandu-Delhi-Kathmandu sector, Pradhan said that the big airlines are concerned more in increasing their services to the middle east, thus are unlikely to affect Cosmic Air. “Cosmic’s strategy is to encourage surface travelers to take the air route by providing services at an affordable price. Cosmic Air with the addition of a third flight would give passengers better connectivity, affordability and an unbeatable choice of flights to the capital of India,” said Pradhan.

Cosmic is also awaiting government permission to fly the Fokker 100 to Pokhara. It had already made a successful test flight on the route. Flights to other domestic destinations, including Bhadrapur are also in the pipeline, he informed. Pradhan was of the opinion that to make up the fall in tourist numbers during the off season, Nepal has to increase more flights to India so that more Indian tourists can be encouraged to visit Nepal. “Though Cosmic Air has permission to fly to Lucknow and Varanasi from Bhairahawa, in the absence of any established air corridor, it is currently unable to operate in these sectors. To link Nepal with Varanasi and Lucknow, Cosmic Air is awaiting permit to operate on these routes from Kathmandu,” Pradhan added. Cosmic has three aircrafts currently and the fourth one is expected by mid-April. Two other aircrafts are due in September. In all, Cosmic Air targets to have eight aircrafts by 2006.