Issuing a press statement on Monday, AOAN drew the attention of the concerned government authority to review airfare at the earliest.[break]
Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) reviews airfare every two years taking into consideration major components like fuel cost, maintenance cost and renewal charge of service, among others.
“Airline operators are facing financial burden as the airfare hasn´t been review for the last five years,” the statement added.
Shrikanta Baral, chief coordinator of AOAN, told Republica that the airlines cannot revise airfare unless there is a government decision.
MoTCA had formed a taskforce to review airfare in the first week of November. It was asked to submit report within two months.
"The taskforce formed about 3 months ago has yet to submit its report to the government,” Baral said, adding, “Except for the fuel surcharge, there has been no increment in airfare in the last five years.” He further informed that fuel cost, cost of maintenance, insurance, landing and parking fees and lease tax have gone up in the last five years.
Binod Gautam, coordinator of Airfare Review Taskforce and the chief of Aviation Safety Department of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), said the taskforce could not prepare its report on time due to cold response from the airlines´ representatives. He also lamented that report of the taskforce prepared in 2008 was not implemented due to political reasons.
“We had proposed the new airfare then, but it wasn´t implemented," Gautam added.
He also informed that inflation in the last five years and fuel costs were the major components to be looked before proposing the new airfare.
The government allows airlines to increase surcharge only if the price of aviation fuel increased by at least Rs 4.
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