Himalaya Airlines on Thursday announced the launch of daily flights to Dubai, beginning from April 28. 

This will be Himalaya Airline’s fourth international destination after Doha, Kuala Lumpur and Yangon. According to the carrier, the flight will depart from Kathmandu at 10:40 local time, arriving in Dubai at 13:25 hrs. The return flight will depart from Dubai at 14:25 local time, arriving in Kathmandu at 20:20 hrs. 

“Dubai is one of the most exciting destinations for leisure and business travel and we feel privileged to offer competitive choices for our passengers” said Vijay Shrestha, vice president-Administration. “We anticipate our service will contribute to the economy of Nepal by bringing new travellers via our route network and at the same time, we’re expecting to be a good yield market for both inbound and outbound travel”.

The airline has offered an introductory round-trip airfare starting from Rs24,827 for Kathmandu-Dubai-Kathmandu, exclusive of taxes. The airline has appointed Fishtail Travel and Tourism LLC, Dubai as its general sales agent for passengers in the UAE. 

Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint venture, was established in August 2014. The airline started its first scheduled flight operations from May 31 last year, flying directly to Doha, Qatar. 

The carrier plans to add a number of exciting new destinations to its growing network in 2017, including Dubai, Dammam, Hong Kong, Delhi, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Bangkok, Beijing, Lhasa and Chengdu.

Last Friday, Himalaya Airlines added a new Airbus A320, a short-to-medium range aircraft, to its fleet. It now has three A320 jets in its fleet. 

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.