Privately-owned Nepali carrier Himalaya Airlines on Friday added a new Airbus A320, a short-to-medium range aircraft, to its fleet.

Himalaya now has three A320 jets in its fleet. 

The new plane bearing registration number 9N-ALW landed in Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:45am. It flew in from Hamburg, Germany.

Inducting three A320s into the fleet in the first year of commercial flight operations is a remarkable achievement, Himalaya Airlines said in a statement. 

“The year 2017 has been a year of achievements for Himalaya Airlines as we have welcomed two new aircrafts and launched two new sectors — Kuala Lumpur and Yangon,” said Vijay Shrestha, the airline’s administration vice-president.

“With the arrival of the third A320, we plan to expand our global network and strengthen Nepal's air connectivity with the international arena.” 

The Airbus 320-214 series is a narrow-body aircraft with a two-class layout — eight business and 150 economy seat configurations.

The new aircraft will start service by April and fly to new sectors such as Dammam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Delhi, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Bangkok, Beijing, Lhasa and Chengdu besides the airline's current destinations, the airline said. 

Himalaya is a Nepal-China joint venture company established in August 2014.

The airlines started scheduled flight operations on May 31, 2016 flying directly to Doha, Qatar.

Currently, the airlines operate direct flights to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Yangon, Myanmar.

The airlines has set a target to acquire 15 aircraft to connect Kathmandu with various new destinations in Asia and beyond over the next five years.

It also plans to introduce long-haul wide-body aircraft of the A330 family to operate direct flights to Japan, Korea, Europe, Australia and America, the carrier said.