Goma Air flight for western districts

HIMALAYAN NEWS SERVICE

KATHMANDU: Goma Air is bringing two Cessna Caravan aircraft to start flights to some remote western districts. “We will be based in Surkhet and fly to five western hilly districts — Jumla, Mugu, Humla, Bajhang, and Bajura,” said Goma Air chairman Upendra Bhattarai.

“We will be expanding our services to Rolpa soon,” he said, adding that the two Cessna Caravan of Goma Air are flying to Kathmandu from Muscat, Oman, today via New Delhi, and land at the Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) by tomorrow afternoon.

The airline with an investment of Rs 250 million plans to operate passenger and cargo flights. “The nine-seater aircraft will be modified to 14-seater for the passenger flight,” he said, adding that the aircraft has 1,300-kg cargo carrying capacity, though it would depend on district-to-district, as the western hilly districts have different altitude.

The airline that has six captains and two aeronautical engineers among the promoters will also operate chartered flights.

There are eight domestic airlines and five helicopter services currently operating from Kathmandu.

While domestic passenger movement has grown by 13 per cent, domestic aircraft movement increased a nominal 2.09 per cent in a year, according to the data. Almost all the domestic carriers saw their business growing during the period.

Today, it is possible to reach most of the tourist destinations in Nepal from remote airfields to major cities in the country by air and the private airlines contribution to this end has been exemplary. Adopting an open-sky policy that allows private airlines to operate domestic flights has strengthened the development of tourism sector as well as creating employment for thousands of professionals, he said.