Buddha Air plans to expand destinations by adding more aircraft

KATHMANDU, Oct 10: The private sector airlines Buddha Air has completed its 25th year journey.

The company, which is celebrating its silver jubilee, has planned to expand its destinations by adding planes. Buddha Air, which started commercial air flights on October 11, 1997, has provided services to more than 18 million passengers through 264,918 flights till 2022, the company informed in a press conference today.

The company is celebrating its anniversary on October 11. The company, which started domestic flights with one Beechcraft 1900D in the initial phase, is currently serving 16 planes including 72-seater ATR planes. The company said that it is providing services on 43 different air routes in the country.

Birendra Bahadur Basnet, Managing Director of Buddha Air, said that expanding the scope of 25th years of commercial travel, they will proceed with a new plan for destinations from the Silver Jubilee to the 50th Golden Jubilee. He said that the company will not make any compromises on the simple and easy travel of passengers and the safety of air flights, and the flight destinations will be gradually expanded along with the planes.

"I personally led Buddha Air for 25th years and brought it to this success, now the company should be institutionalized and go to new ground, that's why we celebrated 25th years of silver jubilee, within the next 25 years we will set a journey for another success, so we have to change something," said Managing Director Basnet. .

He opined that it is possible to change the company's operating structure according to the need and go to the company model. The company has around 1,500 employees. Buddha Air, which is operating international flights in Varanasi, India, has planned to operate flights from Pokhara and Nepalgunj to New Delhi if it gets permission to fly.

The company previously had flights to Kolkata, India for some time, but the flight to that destination was suspended as it could not be operated in a commercial manner. Managing Director Basnet said, "International flights will not be as easy as expected. Completing every process will be difficult, so our focus is to make domestic flights more efficient." If possible, we can also do international flights.

Buddha Air requested permission from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) for two daily flights from Pokhara Regional International Airport to New Delhi and the same number of flights from Nepalgunj. According to the company, international flights will be carried out by ATR 72 aircraft. Managing Director Basnet said that there is no decision at the moment because they did not get as many flights as requested, but there is a plan to fly to these destinations in the future.

According to Buddha Air's Sales and Marketing Director Rupesh Joshi, now the company is serving around 8000 passengers through more than 150 flights per day. In Nepal, 20 air service providers including 11 helicopter companies are providing domestic flights.