New Nepali carrier Alpine Air plans to start daily Kathmandu-New Delhi services in January 2010, and hopes to commence flights to other parts of Asia and the Middle East later in the year.
Alpine Air expects to commence service to New Delhi on 18 January 2010, says its owner and managing director Surendra Malla.
"We are waiting for confirmation of the slots allocated to us by the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) in India," says Malla.
The airline will operate the service with an Airbus A319-100 aircraft leased from Bahrain Air.
"We are in the process of leasing another A320 from Bahrain Air," says Malla.
The airline was set up with an investment cost of $11 million and is completely owned by Malla, who was formerly in the financial services sector.
"We want to position ourselves as a regional carrier," says Malla. "There are a lot of opportunities out of Nepal, with more than 20 airlines flying here."
He plans to start flights to Kuala Lumpur in April 2010, and hopes to follow this with flights to Guangzhou, Mumbai and Doha.
Alpine Air lost its air operator certificate (AOC) in late 1999 when Nepali authorities revoked the AOCs of seven privately owned carriers to tighten up on its oversight of the aviation industry.
Alpine Air, however, had never operated any flights before it lost its AOC, says Malla, who has applied for and received a new AOC.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
