Kathmandu, November 7: Buddha Air’s Executive Chairman, Birendra Bahadur Basnet, has proposed operating wide-body Airbus A350-1000 aircraft—with a seating capacity of 369—from Bhairahawa.
Unveiling his long-term vision to link Nepal’s tourism development with newly launched Gatisheel Prajatantrik Party (Dynamic Democratic Party), Basnet said Nepal’s tourism sector could be completely transformed within ten years.
Having worked in the aviation industry for nearly three decades, Basnet believes his professional experience can be channeled through political and policy-level initiatives to accelerate national development.
To address Nepal’s lack of international flight capacity, Basnet has introduced a ten-year strategic plan titled “Nepal Tourism Vision 2035.” His aviation expertise forms the backbone of this broader “Dynamic Party” development concept.
Basnet has proposed restructuring Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) into a modern, sustainable, and profitable national carrier. Under his plan, the government would retain only 30 percent ownership, while the remaining 70 percent would come from domestic institutional and individual investors.
According to his projection, the restructured NAC would aim to operate 50 large Airbus wide-body aircraft within ten years. This expansion, he argued, could bring in five million tourists annually, create three million jobs, and increase the tourism sector’s contribution to the national economy fivefold—to approximately NPR 1.2 trillion.
The total investment required for this transformation is estimated at NPR 2.1 trillion, though Basnet emphasized that the funding would not be needed all at once. To start, only NPR 25 billion in cash would be required to operate the first five aircraft. He added that all planes could be acquired under international lease-finance models, minimizing the upfront investment burden.
Basnet described this as a “new era of vision” aimed at reshaping Nepal’s tourism industry over the next decade. He proposed transforming the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa into Nepal’s main international aviation hub, noting that Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu has already exceeded its passenger-handling capacity.
According to Basnet, Bhairahawa is fully capable of handling long-haul flights to destinations such as Dallas, Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles. He argued that regular international operations from the Gautam Buddha International Airport would naturally position it as Nepal’s primary aviation hub.
If his Party is entrusted with leadership, Basnet pledged to restructure NAC within three to six months, procure wide-body aircraft, and commence long-haul flights shortly thereafter.
He estimated that NAC could begin long-distance operations from Bhairahawa within one year, requiring an initial investment of only NPR 25 billion—half of which (NPR 12.5 billion) would go toward the first aircraft and the other half for infrastructure setup.
Over ten years, investment in wide-body jets under lease agreements would total approximately NPR 1.26 trillion.
Basnet claimed that by restructuring NAC and expanding to 50 aircraft within a decade, over three million jobs would be created. Once international flights begin from Bhairahawa, a world-class aviation training center would be established in Dang with an investment of NPR 140 billion.
The training facility would enable Nepal to produce 150 co-pilots, 600 flight attendants, and 100 engineers annually. Basnet projected that, as a result of this decade-long vision, Nepal’s aviation sector alone could generate NPR 840 billion annually from air ticket revenues by the end of the ten-year period.
People’s News Monitoring Service.
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