KATHMANDU, Dec 1: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has stripped Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) of its monopoly in ground handling services at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
The civil aviation regulatory body on Friday made the decision to revoke the monopoly given to NAC to carry out ground handling service at the TIA. The decision comes in the wake of the European Union (EU)’s decision to further continue putting Nepali airlines in the blacklist.
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The CAAN said the decision was taken pursuant to Rule 5 (2) of the Service Fee Regulations 2078, paving the way to entrust the ground handling services to the companies selected through an open competition.
The fee collected from the ground handling service is considered to be the lifeline of the income of state-owned NAC. With the latest decision of the CAAN, NAC, if not selected through the competitive bidding, will not get ground handling services. The NAC had been enjoying monopoly rights for ground handling service till date, despite criticisms from various quarters.
Earlier, the CAAN had said that one of the reasons for Nepal's repeated inclusion in the blacklist of the EU was the poor management within NAC. The EU has put decoupling the regulatory and service provider arms as one of the conditions to remove the NAC from its black list.
