Namaste Air ready to take off

Namaste Air — a new domestic airlines — is ready to start its operation within this fiscal year.

"Namaste Air signed an agreement today with Agni Air to start flights with Agni's aircraft," said executive chairman of Namaste Air Raju Khatri.

Namaste Air has agreed to acquire Agni Air's two Dornier aircraft — in the first phase — to start its domestic operations, he said, adding that the airlines will also operate Agni's three Jetstream aircraft — in the second phase — from a month after its operations.

"From October, the airlines will have its own fleet of ATR 72-500 aircraft to operate," he added.

"Namaste Air has completed all the legal, technical and financial arrangements for its operations," said Khatri, adding that the airlines will fly to Pokhara, Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Jomsom, Lukla, Dhangadi and Bharatpur, besides mountain flights.

The grounded Agni Air that has been in trouble due to its key promoter Sudhir Basnet's downfall in the real estate business has agreed to hand over its five aircraft — two Dornier and three Jetstream — to Namaste Air.

Agni Air had posted around Rs 280 million profit in the last fiscal year but the bubble burst in the real estate business has pushed its promoter Basnet to bankruptcy leading to the grounding of Agni's aircraft. Agni had around seven per cent share in the domestic air traffic while it was flying.

Earlier, Simrik Air had acquired Guna Air as the later was also in troubled waters.

Around seven airlines, including Nepal Airlines, are flying in the domestic sky that was opened after the liberal sky policy post-1990 movement.

At present, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has issued Air Operator Certificate (AOC) to 19 airlines, though all of them have not yet started operations.