Following a delay of almost four months to get the permission to fly to New Delhi, Himalayan Airlines finally started its direct flight to Doha. Himalayan Airlines, a Nepal-China Joint Venture Airlines, had its first direct scheduled flight to Doha, Qatar, on May 31st 2016. 

The airline will fly its new Airbus 320-214 from Kathmandu to Doha on a regular basis. The aircraft passenger cabin is configured with 150 economy and 8 business class seats.

The flight route has convenient timings, departing from Kathmandu at 2300 hours (Local Time), and landing at 0130 hours (Local Time) in Doha. Similarly, the return flight will depart at 0230 hours from Doha and land in Kathmandu at 1015 hours the next day. The airline aims at ensuring a high level of reliability and punctuality to its passengers.

“We feel honored to announce that we are starting our first scheduled flight to Doha on May 31st 2016 with a purpose to advance tourism and business amongst people of Nepal and Qatar and strengthen the relationship between the two nations. With regard to this operation, we commit in providing excellent customer service with a flavor of Nepali Culture,” said Vijay Shrestha, Vice President, Administration.

The airline has appointed Cleopatra Travels as its General Sales Agents (GSA), passenger and cargo, for the State of Qatar, who will be responsible for the airline’s sales and marketing, market development, reservations and ticketing services representing the airline in Qatar.

With Tibet Airlines holding 48.99% of equity capital of the company and 51.01%, Nepalese side, Himalayan Airlines aims at serving the Qatari Market with very competitive pricing and delightful service.

Himalayan Airlines, a full-service carrier, established in August 2014, started its international flights operation from April 12th2016, flying directly to Colombo, Sri Lanka. The airline has planned services to more destinations including Delhi, India followed by Lhasa, Chengdu and Beijing in China a few months later. 

The airline has full preparation in terms of training flight crew, maintenance personnel and all functions of airline operation and has in place systems, people and infrastructure to start commercial flights.

Over the coming five years, the airline aims at acquiring 15 Airbus aircrafts and will operate from Kathmandu to various cities in Asia and beyond. The company will introduce long haul wide body aircraft of A330 family in due course of time for the operation of direct flights to Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia, and America.