Domestic airlines are expecting a normal business during the festive season as they have not received impressive booking so far. Following normal enquiry, the operators have not unveiled their plans to add the flight frequency which was a normal trend around this time in previous years.
Only, Buddha Air has decided to add one flight in Kathmandu-Bhadrapur-Kathmandu sector starting from October 16 to October 24. Rupesh Joshi, executive manager of the airlines said they have scheduled 72-seater aircraft in this route. Joshi said except for Bhadrapur there was no pressure in any other segment till now. “The booking might increase as there is still time but the booking trend is not so impressive compared to previous years,” said he.
Other airlines however, said have already sold out all the tickets for Tumlingtar sector.
The operators opined that better road access and higher fuel surcharge was one of the major reasons for few enquiries compared to previous years. Ankur Rana, sales and marketing manager of Yeti Airline said, “We have received 100 percent booking for Kathmandu-Tumlingtar and booking for Biratnagar and Pokhara is also above 80 percent.” Rana said the booking trend was normal and there was no need to add additional flights on the basis of current ticket sales. “We are expecting 100 percent booking in most of the destinations within a week,” he added.
Likewise, Guna Airlines has also reported normal booking for this festive period. “We have not decided about adding additional flights as the enquiries are normal,” said Prajwal Thapa, sales and marketing manager of the airlines. He said as there were no call for strikes and road obstruction, most of the potential air passengers were choosing surface transport. “We do not encourage promotional fares and normal fare has increased because of the recent hike in fuel surcharge,” he added that if the enquires go up in last hour we might increase few flights. The airlines is operating schedule flight in Pokhara and Bhairahawa sector and plans to add Simara to its destinations soon.
Although the airlines are providing normal fare to all the destinations from Kathmandu, they have also unveiled special fare for return flights. Buddha Air is offering the special fare of Rs 2,500 for Kathmandu-Bhadrapur and Rs 1,900 for Kathmandu-Biratnagar sector.
Similarly, Yeti Airlines is offering Rs 1,700 for Kathmandu- Biratnagar, Rs 2,700 for Kathmandu-Bhadrapur and Rs 1,500 for Kathmandu- Janakpur. The normal fare of these routes comes at Rs 5,705, Rs 6535 and Rs 3,455 respectively.
source: republica,1 Oct 2012