Regent Airways of Bangladesh is starting scheduled flights to Kathmandu from February 1. The Dhaka-based carrier has appointed Harvest Moon Travels &Tours as its general sales agent (GSA) for Nepal.

Officials of Harvest Moon said they would open booking for tickets within few days. "We won´t be selling tickets directly. We will sell tickets through other travel agencies," Sushil Shrestha, country manager of Regent Airways, said.

According to Shrestha, they were focusing Nepali students studying in Dhaka, players, staff of NGOs and INGOs visiting for seminars, and migrant workers from Nepal. "We also aim to bring Bangladeshi tourists to Nepal," he added.

Though Regent Airways has received permission to fly daily flights, Shrestha said they will be operating only five flights a week, except on Fridays and Saturdays, for the first three months. "After that we will start daily flights," he added.

The airline will operate Boeing 737-700 series aircraft for Nepal flights. It will have 12 seats in business class and 112 in economy class. The aircraft will land in Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) at 5 pm and return at 6 pm.

 “We haven´t finalized the airfare. But I can assure you that it will be cheaper than the airfare charged by our competitor," he added.

Regent Airways currently flies to Bangkok, Singapore, Malaysia and Kolkata. It is starting flights to Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Riyadh and Doha in the near future.

Of the six international airlines that have unveiled plan to start operation in Nepal, Regent Airways, Mihin Lanka (Sri Lanka), and Malindo Air (Malaysia) have already received operation authorization. Himalayan Airlines, Go Air and Sichuan Air are still to receive operation authorization from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) reports My Republica Online.