The parliamentary International Relations and Labour Committee on Thursday directed the Tourism Ministry to get the country’s abandoned domestic airports back online as they were turning into pastures.

The airports in Rajbiraj, Baitadi, Doti, Tikapur, Sanfebagar, Meghauli and other places have not seen an aircraft for years, and the House panel has told the ministry to get them up and running within three months.  

Seventeen of the 50 airports in Nepal are not in operation as carriers don’t have enough aircraft, while the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) makes an operating profit from seven of them.

The committee has also directed the government to conduct a study of the airports that possess the necessary infrastructure but need huge financial resources to function. The government has been given a month’s deadline to submit a report about the amount of resources required to operate them.

Ironically, Caan has been constructing six new domestic airports when it has not been able to manage the existing facilities.

A number of lawmakers criticized the government for injecting hefty funds into building domestic

airports without conducting a

proper study.  

“How will the government

manage the new airports as it

has not been able to handle the

existing ones?” asked lawmaker Ashok Kumar Mandal. “It’s a serious issue that needs to be discussed extensively.”

Another lawmaker Lalita Kumari Yadav said that airports were being developed without proper planning.

According to Caan sources, the construction of new airports has been initiated at the behest of political party leaders, and it is not a new thing. Caan has been allocating Rs100 million to conduct feasibility studies for new airports every year.

Tourism Secretary Dinesh Kumar Thapaliya told lawmakers that many airports had been constructed and left for grazing animals. “There is a rising trend of demanding airports in every village, and it has become a serious issue.”

Thapaliya said that constructing a small airport with rudimentary facilities requires at least Rs300 million, while an airport with a concrete or blacktopped runway costs

Rs500 million. Moreover, it costs Rs4 million annually to operate a small airport, and it has to be repaired regularly.

“Even if airports are developed, private airlines are not too keen to fly to them,” he said, adding that carriers look for minimum returns before deciding to operate on remote sectors. “As a result, the airfield gradually turns into a grazing field.”

In 2014, the government spent Rs120 million to blacktop the runway at Manang Airport, but no planes land there. “The case would be different if our national flag carrier had adequate aircraft to serve remote airfields,” said Thapaliya.

He added that the government was mulling a community-managed model to manage airports to give local communities a sense of ownership over them. “Besides, we are also planning to issue an airport construction guideline to set basic standards for building domestic airports,” he said.  

‘Lower jet fuel price to market levels’

KATHMANDU: The parliamentary International Relations and Labour Committee on Thursday directed the Supplies and Tourism ministries to set prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) as per the market rate.

The panel said that Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) had been selling jet fuel for much higher than the market price. Airlines have been passing the burden of fuel price hikes directly to travellers in the form of a fuel surcharge, taking air travel beyond the reach of a vast section of the population.

The state-owned oil monopoly has been adopting a cross-subsidy mechanism by increasing aviation fuel prices to stabilize prices of other petroleum products. On September 28, 2014, NOC adopted an auto-pricing mechanism for diesel, petrol and kerosene. However, the system has not been implemented for aviation fuel.

NOC makes a profit of Rs61.61 per litre of jet fuel sold to international carriers, and rakes in Rs215.6 million monthly. Foreign airlines pay $1.33 per litre of aviation fuel. Likewise, its monthly profit on sales of ATF sold to domestic carriers stands at Rs55.1 million. Domestic airlines are charged Rs118 per litre of aviation fuel which yields the corporation a profit of Rs36.71 per litre.

On November 8, 2014, NOC temporarily doubled the price of aviation fuel sold to domestic carriers to Rs232.78 per litre from Rs118 citing the increased costs of importing fuel by air.