Nepal today has been raising its interest in Aviation Industries. Despite facing several constraints, Nepal’s Aviation sector particularly International sector has been growing at a healthy rate. Increased movement of migrant workers in search of job overseas, tourist inflow as well as large number of Nepalese students heading abroad for studies has helped generate the robust passenger traffic growth over a decade.
Starting the history of Aviation of Nepal from 1949, till 1955 first international Airport Tribhuwan Airport was inaugurated. However, today there are many domestic airlines and for international airline too many constructions are being continued. Starting from the only International Airport in Nepal, today with the increase number of people travelling air traffic congestion has become a major concern for aviation stakeholders. So, to minimize the current problem up-gradation of TIA has been done with increase in parking area. In addition, CAAN has started working in three national pride projects which is to increase the international airports- Gautam Buddha International Airport, Pokhara Regional International Airport and Nijgadh International Airport.  Moreover, many works has been completed in Biratnagar airways. Gautam Buddha International Airport is scheduled to be completed by 2020 estimating it’s holding capacity of passengers to be 9 million a year while Pokhara Regional International Airport is expected to be completed in 2021 and having a capacity of 1 million passengers a year. On the other hand, for Nijgadh International Airport many activities such as forest cutting are being processed expecting it to hold 15million passengers a year. The accession of these airports would reduce the traffic in air by a huge numbers.
In case of domestic airlines many airline came and went for 20 years such as Neon Airlines, Cosmic Airlines, Himalaya airlines, etc. However many airlines are still running for domestic purpose such as Yeti Airlines, Buddha Air, Nepal Air, Himalaya Airway, Saurya Air, Agni Airway, Everest Airway, etc. With the increase in tourism sector and development of various tourist sectors, demand for air travel continued to be high, with airlines reporting a double-digit growth in domestic passenger traffic in the first nine months of 2018. According to the data of Tribhuwan International Airport, the country’s domestic passenger traffic grew 16.49 percent to 1.98 million in the January-September period this year. Flight movements increased 3 percent to 66,453 flights. This means the Nepali skies saw, on average, 246 domestic flights daily. Also, with the target for the campaign ‘Visit Nepal 2020’, Buddha Airlines has announced to add fleet (ATR 72s) and Yeti Airlines have added two ATR 72-500 and two ATR 42s recently. There has been an unprecedented growth in the number of domestic air passengers due to increased tourist movement and growing affluence among Nepali’s. The announcement of the Visit Nepal campaign that aims to bring 2 million tourists by 2020 has also encouraged airlines to expand their fleets, according to industry insiders.
Joining to Aviation Industries In Nepal, Helicopters are also the one important aspect which have been the important transport in Nepal especially in times of natural disasters so to rescue operations. Alsom helicopters are simply the best in the industry and safest way to enjoy mountain flights. There are about 8 service companies flying helicopters in Nepal such as Air Dynasty Heli service, Simrik Air, Heli Everest, Summit Helicopters, Mountain Helicopters, Manag Air, Kailash helicopters and Prabhhu Helicopter. Recently, Simrik Air has added one brand new helicopter; AS350 B3e which made the total of 5 helicopters, four AS350 B3e and one Bell 407GXP available in the company. And rest helicopter companies have been planning to add more helicopters as well as its service. However, they are providing its best service with safety of passengers in mind with 1 to 4 numbers of helicopters available.
While airway’s is the easiest and fastest means of transport, people today are using airways for even a domestic travel. People at past used airways travel for business purpose and urgency only but now being it more convenient and cheaper people has started using airways for travel also. The ratio of domestic passengers had decreased by 6% in 2014 because of high fare, bad weather and slow economy. But it has been taking rise again with the safety made tighter and increase in tourist visitors. However, in case of international flight the traffic of passenger rose by 6.5% compared to full-year 2017 which then again increased in 2018.  Moreover, so to improve the Nepal’s aviation sector and increase the traffic a separate autonomous bureau for aircraft accident investigation should be established. Removal from EU Air Safety List, Ratification of Cape Town Convention, aviation diplomacy and investment-friendly policies like some major issues needs to be dealt.
Hence, tourism industries has been growing rapidly where out of 50 airports 29 airports are running its regular flight operations and black-topped runways have been numbered to 28 and rest are in the construction. Facilitation progress can be seen in Tribhuwan International Airport too. Also, GBIA is in progress and Pokhara Regional International Airport has been commenced. Moreover, many other aviation buildings are been under-construction. In gist, the history of Aviation Industries has been a great takeover from aircraft to helicopters to Jetplanes. Increase in technology has bought new aircrafts for attracting more people and provide comfortable as well as safe flight to passengers and there is many more to see and improve as well.
