March 27, 2015

Air Transport Infrastructure and Tourism - A Case Study in

Nepal
Pitambar Bhandari, Puspa Baral, Ramsharan Pandey, Sagar Regmi
(Department of Automobile and Mechanical Engineering, IOE,
Thapathali Campus)
Abstract
Air transportation and tourism is related to each other. In con-
text of Nepal air transportation is primary transport medium for
tourists because of the mountainous topography of Nepal and lack
of the proper surface transportation medium. The main aim of this
study is to investigate the relationship between air transport and
tourism in Nepal. This report also provides a brief study on the
condition of air transport infrastructures and their effects in tourism
in Nepal

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1. Introduction
Air transport is one of the most important factors for the
tourism industry. It renders a very important link between
the tourist market and the particular destination by transport-
ing people. Large number of international tourists travel by
air. Air transportation and tourism are closely related to each
other. Air transport provides easy access to the destination for
tourist and gains financial benefits from its customers.
Tourism is one of the major income source for Nepal. Tourism
business in Nepal does not have very long history. After the es-
tablishment of democracy in the country in 1950 Nepal opened
its gate for the tourists. Since then this industry has been ma-
jor source of income and is attracting international tourist in
rapid manner.
Nepal is famous for the mountains, with rich and diverse nat-
ural and cultural attractions.
2. Importance of air transport in Nepal
The poor infrastructure especially transportation infrastruc-
ture represents a special bottleneck in socio-economic devel-
opment in Nepal. In Nepal, only Terai, is plain and flat fertile
land with ease access of transportation. Predominantly moun-
tainous topographical features, step rives and long scratches
of thinly populated hills and mountains of Nepal have created
problems in development of transportation. The rocky topog-
raphy, difficult weather conditions, poor accessibility in the re-
mote hills, insufficient connectivity by roads, high transport
costs, poor maintenance systems and more road accidents have
made air transport an vital vehicle to change the mode of living
of people in Nepal. Some areas in Nepal are still only accessible
by mules-track and porters. To many of the remote towns and
villages in the mountainous areas of the country, air transport
is the only pratical means of access. So, the air transport sec-
tor is important to the development of Nepal. About 80% of
international tourists travel by air in Nepal.
There are altogether 55 airports in Nepal, not all of them are
operational. Currently there is only one international airport,
four regional hub airports (viz. Biratnagar, Pokhara, Bhaira-

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 hawa and Nepalgunj) and the rest are domestic airports where
the flights are not regular.

3. Problem Statement
The government has propose to attract around 2 million tourists’
inflow in the country through vision 20-20. The major arrival
of tourists in Nepal is by air. But unfortunately, the current
capacity of Nepalese airlines and the infrastructure of airports
are not enough to handle that amount of tourists.
The overshoot of Turkish airline Airbus A330 in the runway of
Tribhuvan International Airport in March 4 has raised a serious
concern about the Nepalese aerospace and the need of second
international airport is deemed necessary.
Nepal airlines corporation current market share is around 3%
in international fleet and a mere 2% in domestic flights. This
raises serious concerns over the capacity of national flag carrier.
The business plan of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) for
next 10 years hopes to revive the lost reputation of state owned
airline and hope to gain a significant market share.
The number of tourist arrival in last fiscal year by air stands
around six hundred thousand. TIA is currently handling around
4.8 million passengers annually which is beyond its limit. Be
it the inability of CAAN to accept Australia airlines proposal
to make TIA regional hub for flights or the announcement of
CAAN that TIA is unable to handle any more traffic after 2023,
the need of another international airport is viewed essential.
4. Current Progress
The Bhairahawa and Pokhara regional airports are being up-
graded into regional international airports with a yearly capac-
ity of around six hundred thousand. For a short term, these
airports may be instrumental for tourism industry, but in the
long run they cannot address the growing need of international
flights. Other domestic airports too are seasonal and their ca-
pacity is not able to handle the growing demand of air traffics.
Government had studied the possibility of second international
airport in Nijgarh but the further development has been stalled.

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 Most of the domestic airports in Nepal are not safe for the flight.
The bad conditions of the runways and unavailability of proper
technical measures, many aircraft accidents are occurring in
Nepal. Tribhuvan International Airport, the only international
airport in Nepal is also not in good condition. The inappropri-
ate condition of runway is always creating problem in landing
flights. Every year maintenance of runways and other technical
equipment is forcing to close TIA for sometimes, which effect
the inflow of the tourists.
Furthermore, lack of the skilled manpower and equipment to
repair and maintain the aircraft forcing the airlines companies
to take their aircraft to other country, which further effecting
the air transport in Nepal.
5. Conclusion and Reccomendaton
Nepal has huge future in air transportation and tourism. As
these two sectors are interrelated to increase the growth of
tourist population the air transport infrastructure should be
enhanced to provide sophisticated and secure transportation.To
make ease access to the air transport all around Nepal following
steps could be helpful.
• The condition of runways of domestic airports as well as
Tribhuvan International Airport should be enhanced by
building reliable runway pitch.
• The TIA itself is not managed well. There is no sufficient
sitting furniture provided for travelers at the airport ter-
minals. Most of the passengers have to stand long time
waiting for the aircraft.So, TIA authorities should short
out this kind of difficulties.
• The current international airport is not sufficient to han-
dle the tourist population, which is increasing day by day.
So, government should look forward to search the alter-
native international airport to TIA by upgrading existing
regional airports or constructing new one. The upgrading
of Bhairahawa and Pokhara airports and construction of
Nijgarh international airport should not be interrupted by
any political issues.

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 • Government should study for the possibilities of construc-
tion of new domestic airports in rural areas where the sur-
face transportation facilities are difficult to construct.

• The private sectors should be encouraged to invest in the

air transport industry, so that there will not be any scarcity
of transportation, by providing a security for their invest-
ments.

References

http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/nepal-dependent-on-tourism-
and-air-transportation-but-challenges-for-its-airlines-55286
NEPAL CNS-ATMD 1 − A32 012 − 11 − 28(AT C)
N ationalAirportsP lanDiagnosis
http : //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N epalA irlines
Regmi, U ttamK.2009.RelationshipbetweenAirT ransportandT ourism.