Airfare revision report submitted to MoCTCA

August 21, 2020, 06:41:56 PM |

KATHMANDU: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN)—the country’s aviation sector regulator — has submitted a report related to airfare revision to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA).

There were talks doing the rounds that airfares in US dollar for the domestic sector will be removed with this revision. However, RajanPokhrel, director general of CAAN, has stated that the report has recommended ways to manage the dollar airfare in the domestic sector rather than completely removing it.

“There is no such recommendation of removing the dollar airfare completely in the domestic sectorin the report. Instead, the report has recommended ways to manage the airfare for foreigners and local passengers,” he said. “However, MoCTCA might not take decisions based only on the report. It depends on the ministry now,” added Pokhrel.
Along with dollar airfare other airfaresin the domestic sector will also be revised. The regulatory body revises the airfares every two years.
Earlier, Tourism Minister YogeshBhattarai had announced that the dollar airfare system would be completely removed from the domestic sector. He had also directed airline operators to remove dollar airfare, however, back then the airline operators refused to comply with the minister’s direction.
As per a source atMoCTCA, domestic airfares for local passengers will surge if the dollar airfare is removed completely. “Domestic airline operators are earning from the dollar airfare and if the ministry removes it then the airline operators will charge the maximum airfare even from domestic passengers, whichmeans airfares for local passengers will be expensive,” the source added.
Meanwhile, the ministry has not mentioned anything about this issue citing that discussions are ongoing and it will not be wise to talk about policy related issues before any decision has been taken.

Fiscal Nepal |

Friday August 21, 2020, 06:41:56 PM |