Kathmandu, June 26: Nepal has initiated a process to strike a new air service agreement (ASA) with China. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Aviation, discussions between the concerned officials of the two countries are being carried in various phases for signing the new Air Service Agreement. A Nepali delegation team will be visiting the northern neighbour soon for the same purpose.
“We need to modify and update the existing ASA reached between the two nations in 2004 in line with the changing scenario. This will facilitate the Nepali airline companies to fly to new cities of China,” say the ministry sources.
The prevalent ASA allows such companies to operate flights in seven Chinese cities-Beijing, Shanghai, Lhasa, Guangzhou, Kunming, Xanadu and Xian. Similarly, it also talks about operating 70 air flights a day between the two countries. However, no single flight from Nepal has so far been operated in any of these cities. In some cases, Nepali airlines find it tough to get suitable slots in some of the airports situated in these cities. In other cases, such airlines do not possess the aircraft technically suited to operate in some airports of these places.
Even though no single Nepali airplane has flown to China, 30-40 air flights are being operated from China to Nepal every day.
The proposed revision of the current ASA is expected to make it technically easy for the Nepali air service providers to operate in Chinese airports. According to the ministry, it will try to rope in the Chinese side to sign a new ASA, which will facilitate Nepali airplanes to easily get slots in those Chinese airports which are not too busy. Similarly, the new deal might assist the Nepali air companies to operate flights in the commercially viable Chinese airports, according to it. Presently, the Nepal Airline Corporation and Himalaya Airline are those two Nepali companies looking to fly to China
