Himalaya Airlines signs pact with Pelesys

Plans to start operation from early 2016

KATHMANDU, Aug 30:Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint venture airline company, has signed an agreement with Pelesys, a leading aviation training solutions provider, to train its workforce.

Issuing a press release on Sunday, the airline said Pelesys will provide its online and offline training courses and training services for its flight crew and other personnel.

Vijay Shrestha, vice president -administration of the company, said Pelesys will provide its services in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS) solution and Training Management and Deployment System (TMDS) across the entire organization.

Pelesys CrewPad, a tablet based offline Learning Management System (LMS) platform, will provide the flight crew and other personnel of Himalaya Airlines the choice to complete training online, or offline, while continuing to maintain training compliance and complete audit control and data security, the release added.

"This agreement will add on a significant value to our in-house training capabilities. Our flight crew will receive an effective international standard online or offline or both training content and other intellectual property produced and design by Pelesys. We believe that these capabilities will help us strengthen our air safety standards from the beginning of our operation," said Shrestha.

The airline has re-scheduled its launch to 2016. Earlier, it had unveiled plan to launch services with a fleet of Airbus 319 and Airbus 320 from July. The airline plans to become Nepal's second carrier. It plans to link Kathmandu with various Asian cities in the first phase.

According to company officials, its Airbus 319 and 320 aircraft will arrive by November or December and that it will begin commercial operation from early 2016.

Pelesys will provide A320 Aircraft Type Rate training and library of Special Operations Courseware that will be employed within Flight Operations to address both initial and recurrent training requirements, the release added.

Amid increasing tourist arrivals from China, Chinese carriers have been increasing their frequency to Nepal. At present, four Chinese carriers -- Air China, China Southern, China Eastern and Sichuan Airlines -- connect Kathmandu with different Chinese cities.

According to Tourism Statistics 2014 released by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal received 123,805 Chinese tourists in 2014, up by 9.39 percent compared to 2013. In 2013, 113,173 Chinese tourists had visited Nepal.

Himalaya Airline is promoted by Yeti World Investment and HIF Aviation Investment Company from Nepal and Tibet Airlines from the People's Republic of China.

Tibet Airlines holds 49 percent stake in the company, while HIF Aviation Investment and Yeti World Investment jointly own the remaining 51 percent. The airline has claimed that this is the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Nepal's aviation sector so far.