The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said in its report for the 2020-21 fiscal year ending in mid-July that it lost around 12 bn NPR in potential earnings, reports Xinhua news agency. Nepal's aviation entities lost around 37 bn NPR in potential earnings due to flight restrictions imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to an annual report. Airlines as a whole lost about 25 bn NPR due to flight restrictions enforced after the first and second waves of the pandemic that hit the country in early 2020 and this April, the report said.
Nepal's other airlines involved in domestic flights lost around 15 billion NPR. The South Asian country first suspended international flights on March 22 last year and later a lockdown imposed from March 24 to July 21 halted domestic flights as well. Domestic and international flights resumed on September 1 last year, but the ban was reinstated after the coronavirus battered the country again in early April this year.
Raj Kumar Chhetri, CAAN's spokesman, told Xinhua that the suspension of domestic and international flights have resulted in heavy losses to both the regulator and the airlines. "For example, our monthly income has come down to 200 mn NPR to 300 mn NPR in recent days from 800 mn NPR to 900 mn NPR in normal times before the pandemic first hit the country," said Chhetri. "Our monthly income plunged to as low as 40 mn NPR a month when the lockdown was strictly enforced," he added. The CAAN has raised various fees from the airlines, including airport development fees. "In recent days, only 12 to 18 international flights are taking off daily from Tribhuvan”.
In Nepal, domestic flights are faring better than international ones these days. "Recently 102 flights take off in a day, a record high since the second wave of pandemic hit," said Chhetri.
In a recent interview with Xinhua, Dim Prasad Poudel, managing director of Nepal Airlines, said that for the last one and a half years, the national flag carrier was failing to repay massive loans it received to procure aircraft for international flights due to pandemic-induced losses.
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