May 24: Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China Joint Venture Airline, officially announces its first direct scheduled flight to Doha, Qatar from May 31st 2016. The airline will fly its new Airbus 320-214 from Kathmandu to Doha on a regular basis. The aircraft passenger cabin is configured with 150 economy and 8 business class seats. The airline had flown Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his entourage to Beijing during his official visit to China in March. The airline aims at ensuring a high level of reliability and punctuality to its passengers.
“We feel honored to announce that we are starting our first scheduled flight to Doha on May 31st 2016 with a purpose to advance tourism and business amongst Nepal and Qatar and strengthen the relationship between the two nations. With regard to this operation, we commit in providing excellent customer service with a flavor of Nepali Culture,” says Vijay Shrestha, Vice-President of Himalaya Airlines. Due to the absence of competitive airline service in the country, much of Nepal's international market has been secured by international airlines. Himalaya said its flight to Doha would depart Kathmandu at 11 pm while the return flight would leave Doha at 2:30 am.
The airline has appointed Cleopatra Travels as its General Sales Agent (GSA) which will be responsible for the airline’s sales and marketing, market development, reservations and ticketing services representing the airline in Qatar. Apart from Doha, the company has been planning to operate flights to Delhi and various parts of China. The airline had welcomed its first new aircraft MSN 6626, Airbus 320-214, Nepal registration number 9N-ALM, on March 9, 2016 at 14:25 NST.
The airline, over the coming five years aims at acquiring 15 Airbus aircrafts and will operate from Kathmandu to various cities in Asia and beyond. “The company will introduce long haul wide body aircraft of A330 family in due course of time for the operation of direct flights to Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia, and America,” said Shrestha.
