Kolkata to get back air link to Nepal after 11 months, direct flights from September 1
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Kolkata: After a gap of nearly eleven months, Kolkata is set to have direct flight connectivity with Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.
Travellers between Kolkata and Kathmandu currently have to travel via Delhi.
Buddha Air, Nepal's largest private airline, will touch down in Kolkata on Sept 1. The airline, which operates a fleet of 18 ATR turboprop regional aircraft, will deploy a 70-seater ATR 72-500 on the Kolkata-Kathmandu sector.
The airline will operate four flights a week — on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday.
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Buddha Air operated flights to Kolkata between May and Dec 2019 before they were withdrawn due to a combination of poor load and the Covid-19 pandemic effect.
At that time, Air India used to operate four flights a week between Kathmandu and Kolkata. The airline suspended operations to Kathmandu in Oct last year.
Sister carrier Air India Express, which was supposed to start service on the sector this March, delayed its plans.
Kolkata is Buddha Air's second port of call in India. It has been operating flights to Varanasi for a decade.
Buddha Air has been operating in Nepal since Oct, 1997 when it flew 16 people to Mt Everest and back in a Beechcraft 1900D aircraft.
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It currently operates an all-ATR fleet of 16 ATR 72-500 and two ATR 42-320 aircraft that do 160 flights a day to connect 15 destinations. In Nepal, Buddha Air flies to Kathmandu, Pokhara, Bharatpur, and Janakpur, among others.
Travel Agents Federation of India national committee member Anil Punjabi said the introduction of flights would help revive tourism to Nepal from the east.
"It is a repeat destination for those with families on both sides of the border as well as those keen on casinos. All that one requires is a govt ID like a Voter ID cards to travel," he said, adding that the only challenge is that Indian currency notes of Rs 500 denomination are not accepted in the neighbouring country. Travel Agents Association of India national committee member Manav Soni said the airline would not have difficulty filling up its seats but needed to be consistent in its operations.
"Flight cancellation can impact passenger confidence," he opined.
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