Nepal Airlines to begin Dubai service from August 18

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Nepal Airlines  to begin Dubai service from August 18

Published: Mon 25 Jul 2016, 10:16 PM

Last updated: Tue 26 Jul 2016, 11:47 AM

Nepal Airlines will launch Dubai service from August 18, starting from three flights per week and mainly target Nepali workers.
This was announced by Kumar Jagadeesan, general manager of Ajman National Travel Agency (ANTA) for UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The national flag carrier of Nepal has selected ANTA as their General Sales Agent for passengers and cargo in the UAE, according to Jagadeesan. The airline is expected to launch daily service to Kathmandu from early next year, he informed.
The airline had suspended its flights on Kathmandu-Dubai route due to the lack of aircraft in 2012. The UAE is the fourth largest destination for Nepali migrant workers. According to recent estimates there are 400,000 Nepali workers in the UAE.
Despite the fact that Air Arabia and flydubai already operate three daily flights to Kathmandu, Kumar is confident that Nepal Airlines will get success.
"Nepalese are proud of their own airline, so they would love to travel on Nepal Airlines," he said.
Talking about the ANTA strategy to attract passengers, he mentioned that there will a discounted fare for a month since the start of the operations. Under the introductory offer, the one way fare will be Dh535 and return flight ticket will be Dh1,080 for economy class. Business class introductory offer fare including taxes is Dh1,135 for one way and Dh2,280 for return flight. In addition, the airline is generous to offer 35kgs baggage allowance for economy class passengers and 40 kgs for business class passengers for Kathmandu bound flight. And there will be 20 kgs for economy and 30 kgs for business class passengers for Dubai bound flight. The national carrier used to fly to Amsterdam, Colombo, Dhaka, Frankfurt, Karachi, London, Osaka, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore and Vienna, besides five Indian cities - Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Patna. It presently connects Kathmandu with  Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Bangkok and three cities in India - Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. "We are working with airlines to connect people beyond Kathmandu and Dubai," Kumar informed. 
The state-owned airline will soon fly to Kolkata in India, Guangzhou in China, and Dammam in Saudi Arabia. By the end of 2016, the airline will be serving nine destinations compared to seven at present. Talking about the targeted marketing segment from the UAE market, he mentioned that these are adventure tourism for Arab youth and Western expatriates and leisure trips for all segments.
"People of Nepal are friendly and we will also promote the country as a family tourism destination," Kumar informed.He also mentioned that Nepal encourages investment into the country specially in hospitality sector. A lot of hotel rooms are already under construction in the country, he added. - abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com

By Abdul Basit

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