To begin with, the national flag carrier will start scheduled flight to Guanzhou within few months.
Shailesh Kansakar, deputy director of NAC, told Republica that the national flag carrier has already appointed Beijing Longway International Travel Services Co Ltd (BLITS), a subsidiary of Longway Investment Co Ltd, its GSA in China.
Longway Investment Co Ltd mainly focuses in local outbound tourism. Officials of the company had visited Nepal in the second week of December to study the Nepali market and devise its marketing plans and strategies.
NAC plans to use its Airbus A320 aircraft for Guangzhou flights.
Speaking at a program organized to unveil the national flag carrier's three-year plan in Kathmandu last week, Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NAC, had said that they will make optimum use of the new aircraft.
Duration of Kathmandu-Guangzhou flight is around four hours. The return flight, however, takes more than five hours."
"We have filed an application at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, China, for route operating permits by foreign air transport enterprises i.e. China Civil Aviation Regulation (CCAR -287) which will take around two weeks. As China is celebrating its New Year and the offices are closed, we hope to get the permit once its holidays get over." deputy director Kansakar, who is also the assistant spokesperson of NAC, said“ "We have planned to start flights by the end of March. It, however, might be delayed by a few months as the procedure in Chinese offices is likely to take some time."
NAC has also applied for CCAR 129 in China. CCAR 129 permit has to be taken by foreign air operators, which wants to operate an aircraft within Chinese airspace for scheduled or non-scheduled commercial service.
"It seems that it will take some time to getting CCAR 129 permit as it requires fulfilling all criteria including office registration and setup, slot permission, ground handling, appointment of staff members, and many other aspects," Kansakar added.
CCAR 129 regulates operational approval process and continuous surveillance of foreign commercial air operators by Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
NAC has also finalized its GSA in UAE and Kolkata, India. The national flag carrier plans to start flights to Dammam and Kolkata once it starts flight to Guangzhou.
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