Conducting international flights is a dicey operation that needs to be undertaken with great caution and forethought. Birendra Bahadur Basnet, managing director of Buddha Air, said this at an event organised to mark his carrier’s 25th anniversary in the capital on Monday.
Primarily known for its domestic service, Buddha Air operates a single international route connecting Kathmandu, Nepal with Varanasi, India. However, in the past, it had also sought to connect the Nepali capital with Guwahati, Kolkata and Lucknow. Flights were launched but could not be sustained. Drawing from this experience, Basnet said that his carrier would only consider flying internationally if the routes were commercially profitable and if it was allowed to operate adequate number of flights.
Buddha Air began service on October 11, 1997 with a Beechcraft 1900D aeroplane. Today, as its director Astha Basnet Thapa informed, it has a fleet of 16 planes flying to 15 destinations in Nepal and India.
It also has an international-standard closed-door hangar, the first airline in Nepal to have one, at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). Built at a cost of US$ 2.5 million, Buddha Air uses this hangar to repair and maintain its aircrafts as well as the crafts of other domestic and international airliners.
Talking about his experience running Buddha over the past a quarter century, Managing Director Basnet said that the airline, the largest private airline in the country, always complied with the rules and followed the process. “This reduces problems and ensures longevity,” he said, advising all entrepreneurs to not undercut the established mechanisms for short-term gains.
Source : TRN,
