When domestic airline came in use for the first time, there was very less use of it. It’s line on about 100% only 2% would use it. The one would use air transport would also be for the purpose of emergency cases only such as for taking a sick person or if people had to go for some business meeting immediately. Else no any people would use airlines for travel. The only people to use these routes would be people who had higher income and could afford. This is also because of higher price of domestic airlines. However, today people prefer more of airlines even for domestic purpose then road transport.
The fluctuation of domestic air passengers which had been since 2009, has been gradually increased after the earthquake of 2015 and today is doubled with 7,800 travelers taking to the skies daily, according to data released by Tribhuvan International Airport.
Domestic airlines have gone to downfall during 2009 because of the higher airfare and safety concerns. However, concerning the 2015 records domestic passengers has rapidly increased and year 2017 was another greater year for the achievement for domestic airport as well as Tribhuvan International Airport as they recorded 2.45 million passengers flying in 2017. Today people choose to travel through flight then drive over bumpy national highways which seems to be perpetually under repair. Another reason for people to travel is drop in airfare as well as people’s growth of affordability. “Nepalese are earning more, as a result, flying is not limited to wealthy travelers
nowadays,” said by Kumar Chhetri, General manager of Tribhuvan International Airport, adding that affordability would continue to drive demand and there would be an unprecedented number of Nepalese taking to the skies daily (TheKathmanduPost, 2019).
Tribhuvan International Airport statistics show that the flight movement of domestic airlines is nearing the 100,000 mark. In 2018, the Nepali skies saw 95,580 domestic flights, which means 262 flights take off and land daily, a majority of them at Kathmandu’s congested airport. The huge traffic jam in air has been seen as we see the traffic jam in road. However, many domestic airlines has done been well developed because of lack of infrastructures. But seeing the figure of 2017, 7.19 passengers traveled using domestic flyer. Today even night flights are taken in domestic airlines.
And among various domestic airlines Buddha Air topped the list in the movement of passengers in 2018. The carrier recorded a 4.45 percent growth in passenger numbers last year, flying 1.32 million passengers, the highest number for a single airline. Buddha’s rival, Yeti Airlines, saw its passenger numbers grow 20.53 percent to 668,664 in 2018. Despite domestic airlines, international airline’s has also been improving a lot today. People are more on studying abroad, travelling international countries and working overseas which is why international airlines are also on peak these days.
In gist, if we talk about airlines in Nepal then it has gone way beyond the history with lot more resources available as well as lot more air passenger’s traffic.
