Visiting Nepal has become a difficult task for tourists lately as most of the airlines flying to Nepal are packed.

 

Tourism entrepreneurs said the paucity of air seats has hindered the recovery of the tourism industry, which has just begun to pick up with the end of the conflict.

 

According to Thursday's The Kathmandu Post daily, Qatar Airways that runs 11 flights a week on Doha-Kathmandu route said it is packed until June. Gulf Air, which has seven flights every week to Kathmandu from Bahrain, said most of its flights are packed until December.

 

An official of Thai Airways said almost 95 percent of its seats in its outbound flights to Bangkok are booked till May. The pressure of demand for air seats is stifling, but there is no way to deal with it, the official was quoted by the daily as saying.

 

The situation is much the same for New Delhi-Kathmandu route. A Jet Airways official said it is almost packed for now.

 

Much unfortunate is that Nepal is soon to be completely isolated from Europe in terms of direct air-connectivity, as Austrian Air, the only airline running direct flights from Vienna, is set to discontinue its flights from May 17.

 

Varini De Silva, president of Ceylon Express International, a US based travel company said air seats shortage has hindered their efforts to send more tourists to Nepal.

 

"With the establishment of peace, we want to promote Nepal in the US. But, there are not enough air seats available for Nepal," she said, during her recent trip here.

 

Ram Kaji Koney, first vice-president of Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents said many tour operatives have given up promoting Nepal. "Nepal has become virtually 'inaccessible' destination. Many tourists planning to make trips to Nepal have given up due to the air seats crunch," he said.

 

"What is the use of running promotional campaigns in the international market while there is lack of airline seats for would-be tourists?" he asked.

 

He said even though some are able to buy tickets, they are forced to pay exorbitant prices due to lack of competition among airlines.

 

"So, Nepal has become an expensive destination, which has discouraged tourists," he said.

 

According to Koney, the round-trip airfare from Kathmandu to London is around 90,000 Nepali rupees (US$1,285), while the two-way fare on New Delhi-London route is around 42,000 rupees (US$600).

 

In recent months, some airlines commenced flights to Nepal, but not enough to cope with the demand caused by rising tourist inflow.

 

Tourist arrivals grew by a staggering 32 percent to 82,857 in the first three months this year.

 

In addition, the increasing movement of Nepalis, mainly laborers fueled the shortage of air-seats.

 

An official at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said that the government is serious in luring more airlines to deal with the air seats shortage. "A few airlines are in the process of starting flights to Nepal. This would greatly relieve the present situation," he said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2007)