KATHMANDU: Speaking during a press meet organised on Wednesday to unveil the work plan of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), Madan Kharel, executive director of the corporation, said that the targeted time frame for sector expansion has been postponed.

While NAC had announced to operate flights to Narita in Japan within two months, the flight has been postponed to March next year. Even the flights to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and Guangzhou in China have also been postponed to March next year.

“I agree that we are not being able to operate flights within our targeted time. But NAC alone cannot take responsibility for this situation,” Kharel said. “There are other national and international factors behind frequent postponement in our sector expansion plan.” As per him, civil aviation authorities of both China and Saudi Arabia have talked about conducting a safety audit before giving flight permission.

“The Chinese civil aviation authority has informed us that they will conduct safety audit in December, while Saudi Arabia has also expressed its interest in conducting safety audit,” he added. Meanwhile, NAC is also conducting a study to operate commercial flights to Beijing and Shanghai in China; Dhaka in Bangladesh; Yangon in Myanmar; Hanoi in Vietnam; Phnom Penh in Cambodia and Colombo in Sri Lanka.