Jet closure benefits Nepal Airlines

The suspension of all flights by Jet Airways this week has been both a curse and a boon for Nepal. The Indian private airline carried the largest number of passengers to and from the country till last year, many of them tourists.

Jet Airways operated 35 flights a week out of Kathmandu to Delhi and Mumbai with many of the Nepali passengers connecting to Gulf destinations, and tourists on to Europe and North America. The Airline’s collapse coincided with Nepal’s spring tourist season, and many passengers either cancelled their holidays or had to be rerouted on other airlines.

Nepal Airlines that had overtaken Jet to be the top carrier to and from Nepal last year after the expansion of its fleet with four new Airbus aircraft stands to gain the most from Jet’s departure. It currently has 11 flights a week to Delhi and has announced it will add three more by 1 May. 

Nepal Airlines also operates flights to Mumbai and Bengaluru in India, and is increasing flight frequency by one each per week to those cities. Nepal Airlines competed directly with Jet for Nepali overseas workers flying between Kathmandu and Persian Gulf cities. 

In 2017 Jet carried 469,301 passengers to and from Nepal, and this had dropped to 450,949 last year, and the number of passengers had started dropping every month in the first half of 2019. 

In 2018, Jet Airways carried 10% of the 4.42 million passengers to and from Nepal. Suman Pandey of President Travels says: “Jet was carrying a lot of European tourism to Nepal, as well as visitors from India. Stopping flights at the height of the tourist season can make it difficult for tourists to get seats.” 

Tourism was already affected by the closure of Kathmandu Airport from 10PM-8PM every day for runway repairs till 31 June. The effect of Jet cancellation has already made tickets more expensive because of higher demand from passengers. One-way tickets to Delhi from Kathmandu which had dropped to Rs8,000 on some airlines have now exceeded Rs30,000, and it is still difficult to get a reservation. 

Nepal Airlines, which operates 33 flights a week to 8 international destinations with its two A320 and A330 each looks to be the prime beneficiary of Jet’s closure. However, one of the A320s needs to be grounded for regular maintenance so Nepal Airlines may not be able to fully meet passenger demand. 

In this case, other carriers to India like Indigo and Air India stand to benefit, as well as Himalaya Airlines, Fly Dubai, Oman Air, Air Arabia, Qatar, Etihad to the Gulf countries. Jet’s Europe and North American passengers could also switch to Turkish, which operates daily flights to Istanbul with 90% of its passengers being transit.

With Jet out of the picture, Kathmandu will now be even better connected to Chinese cities than Indian ones. At present Kathmandu has 50 flights a week to Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Chengdu, Kunming and Lhasa. There are now 35 flights a week to Delhi, and 3-4 direct weekly flights to Bengaluru, Mumbai, Varanasi and Kolkata.