The Hindu : Business : Jet Airways' inaugural flight to Kathmandu

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, May 15, 2004

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Business

Jet Airways' inaugural flight to Kathmandu

By Vinay Kumar

KATHMANDU, MAY 14. With tourism being the mainstay of the economy of Nepal, the Himalayan Kingdom appears confident to maintain last year's growth of 33 per cent in international tourist arrivals despite disturbances due to Left Wing Maoist insurgency.

Addressing a press conference here today to mark the inaugural Delhi-Kathmandu flight of the leading Indian private airlines, Jet Airways, the Nepal Tourism Board Chief, Tek Bahadur Dangi, assured that Nepal remained one of the safest destinations for international tourists.

Mr. Dangi was hopeful that the current trend could see full-fledged revival of tourism in Nepal and the total number of arrivals by air may touch half a million mark which was touched in 1999. But the hijack of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 flight in December 1999 and subsequent suspension of IA flights for the next six months had affected tourist arrivals to the Himalayan Kingdom.

"After launching our first international flight to Colombo from Chennai in March and achieving satisfactory performance on the sector, we are aiming at securing a load factor of 70 per cent on the Delhi-Kathmandu sector," the Jet Airways Chief Executive Officer, Wolfgang Prock-Schaure, told reporters here.Earlier, the Jet Airways flight 9W 4108, operated by Boeing 737-800 aircraft, was accorded traditional welcome as it touched down at Tribhuan international airport here amid performances of folk dancers, musicians and bands who added to the festive spirit.

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