The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) made a profit of Rs 3.4915 billion in the last fiscal year.
Speaking at the 25th anniversary program of CAAN on Sunday, Director General of the Authority, Pradeep Adhikari, said that the net operating profit after deducting all expenses of the Authority was Rs 3.4915 billion in the last one year.
He said that CAAN’s total income stood at Rs 13.513 billion – Rs 11.7217 billion from aeronautical services and activities and Rs 1.7886 billion for non-aeronautical services and activities. He mentioned that Rs 15.8283 billion was spent – Rs 7.4438 billion under capital expenditure, Rs 4.2299 billion under operating expenses, Rs 4.155 billion for paying income tax and other expenses. He also said that in the last 25 years of establishment of CAAN, air flights have increased by 192 percent. The director general of CAAN said that the number of trips in air flights also increased by 364 percent and cargo also increased by 100 percent.
According to him, CAAN’s income in the fiscal year 1999/2000 was Rs 918.4 million, and it has increased by 15 times to Rs 13.51 billion in the fiscal year 2022/23. He said that by the end of 2023, the number of domestic airports has reached 55 including three international airports. He mentioned that the aviation sector, which has been financially devastated due to Covid-19 pandemic, returned to its original state in 2022, undergoing reforms. He said that by December 2023, the number of passengers on air flights had returned to full. He said that by November 2022, the number of passengers traveling by international air from Tribhuvan and Bhairahawa airports was 2,945,540 and by November 2023, the number of passengers traveling by air from three international airports had reached 4,154,393.
He presented the data showing a 41.04 percent increase in the number of passengers compared to the same period last year. He mentioned that the total number of 5,668,941 air passengers traveled by domestic flights up to November 2022 increased by 37.48 percent to 7,794,217 by November 2023.