KATHMANDU: The Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will now start flying to Saudi Arabia, one of the Middle Eastern countries with the highest number of Nepali workers. Earlier, the corporation was providing partial service from charter flights there. Saudi Arabia will be the eighth destination country for a corporation with four planes.
The General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s civil aviation office, on Monday granted permission to Nepal Airlines Corporation to operate two-way flights to three cities in Jeddah, Dammam and Riyadh.
Four officials, including the Corporation’s Executive Chairman Yubaraj Adhikari, had gone to Saudi Arabia to get permission to fly. The corporation has stated in a press release that in the first phase from April, Kathmandu-Riyadh-Kathmandu flights will be operated three days a week. Before the corporation, Himalayan Airlines has been operating regular flights to Dammam and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia had earlier allowed the corporation to fly in 2002 and 2020. However, due to lack of planes and poor management, the corporation could not go to Saudi. As the corporation did not go to Saudi Arabia, Gulf Air used to bring / take Nepali workers to Saudi Arabia via Bahrain.
