Airlines, travel agencies to defy Pokhara airport shut down

Airlines and travel agencies have decided to defy the ´airport shut down´ strike by locals and resume regular flights and other services in Pokhara from Wednesday.

Though the operators and travel trade entrepreneurs in the past supported the airport shutdown strike that the local group called to pressure the government to construct regional international airport, they now say week-long strike, beginning from Tuesday, will not only dampen their business, but also taint the goodwill of the tourism industry.

"Halting of essential services like air transport is certain to ruin the image of the city along with the tourism business of the country," said Rameshwor Thapa, president of Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN).

As a part of their struggle for the regional international airport, the local pressure groups have been organizing different protest from August 14. In the lastest move, they have announced airport shutdown from 8 am to 11 am.

Though the airlines operators had an understanding not to operate flights during the strike hours, Yeti Airlines on Tuesday had landed in Pokhara at 8:15 am due to traffic congestion in Kathmandu. However, locals took the incident as defiance of their strike call and vandalized Yeti Airlines office in Pokhara.

"We operators are positive about the demand of the locals. But shutting down the airport is not going to yield any result. The problems seen on the project should be sorted out through dialogue, instead of leaving tourists at lurch," Thapa said at a press meet.

The operators said that they are going to resume normal flights to Pokhara from Wednesday. They also assured safety of passengers and aircraft, saying that the AoAN is also approaching the government for appropriate security arrangement.

Travel Agencies, who also expressed solidarity to locals demand in the past by not selling the destination, said they are no longer going to support ´anti-tourism´ activities.

Madusudan Acharya, first vice president of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA) said that the frequent strikes in tourist city at the beginning of the peak tourist season was certain to bring a number of cancellation in tour packages. "Once there is negative message, it will take years to improve the situation," he said.

AOAN officials said they were even ready to invest in the Pokhara Regional International Airport Project. "Our study suggests that the airport can be constructed in less than 50 percent of the cost proposed by the Chinese bidder, China CAMC. We are ready to invest in the project," said Thapa.

The operators expressed serious concern over the flight disruption and said the activity like this was going to hamper the credibility of aviation authority and aviation industry.

source: republica,25 Sept 2012