KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 1

In the last 10 days, the number of passengers coming to Kathmandu was more than those flying out of the valley.

The domestic flights were resumed from September 21. For the first phase of resumption, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) had issued a schedule for the domestic sector. During the first phase, a total of 1,195 domestic flights were conducted, in which a total of 24,322 passengers travelled via air route.

Among the total number of flights, 9,809 passengers travelled out of Kathmandu via 595 flights, while 14,513 passengers entered Kathmandu via 600 flights.

As per Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Buddha Air conducted 404 flights carrying 14,480 passengers from and to Kathmandu, while Yeti Airlines operated 229 flights with 7,646 passengers. Similarly, Shree Airlines conducted 42 flights carrying 1,255 passengers.

As the schedule for the first phase ended yesterday, the government has increased the flight quota for the domestic sector from today.

Till Wednesday, the domestic airlines were allowed to operate only 25 per cent of their flight slots.

However, the airline companies have now been allowed to operate 50 per cent of flights. As per the CAAN, Buddha Air has been allowed to operate 29 flights per day. Prior to this, the airline company was permitted to operate a maximum of 18 flights daily.

Similarly, Yeti Airlines has been permitted to conduct 18 flights a day from now onwards, while earlier it was allowed to operate 11 flights a day.

Similarly, Shree Airlines has been permitted to operate 15 flights a day, whereas it was operating only six flights a day till Wednesday. Similarly, Simrik Air has been permitted to operate two flights a day while till Wednesday it was operating one daily flight. Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has been permitted to operate eight flights per day.

For rural areas, Tara Air has been permitted to operate seven flights, Summit Air and Sita Air have been allowed four flights per day each.

Prior to this, Tara, Summit and Sita Air had been operating three flights a day.

The revised schedule will be valid until October 30. After that, the government will again gauge the situation and take a decision regarding the flight schedule. After the resumption of domestic flights, airline operators have been carrying passengers at 90 to 95 per cent occupancy. The airline operators have said they are satisfied with the seat occupancy.