Kathmandu, September 28: Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has directed the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) not to permit the Himalaya Airlines to operate self ground-handling’ services for the time being.
Tourism Minister Yogesh Bhattarai called upon Director General at CAAN Rajan Pokharel at his office and gave such an instruction on Sunday (September 27). The decision to issue a license to the Himalaya Airlines to operate the self ground-handling service was made by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) on Friday (September 25). But it is triggering a great deal of controversy in the country’s aviation market .
The Employees Union of the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) terms the latest move to allow the private airline company to the self ground-handling service by replacing the NAC as a conspiracy. “It is the ploy of aviation mafia to financially weaken the NAC and the CAAN by enabling a foreign company that has shares in the Himalayan Airlines to bag hefty earnings,” it claims.
On the other side, the CAAN officials have been flatly refuting such a claim. They state the license to the airlines company was issued as it has operated more than 35 flights a week as per the Ground Handling Directive. Also in their meet with Minister Bhattarai yesterday, they made such an argument.
However, in his response, he rebuked them for doing so by not consulting the ministry. It is said that the minister is looking to entitle the NAC to solely handle all ground-handling tasks across the country so that its income would increase .
Besides the NAC, currently Air India and Thai Air are enjoying the right to carry out such tasks
