Buddha Air


Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd is an airline based in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Nepal, near Patan. It operates domestic as well as international services within Nepal and India, serving mainly large towns and cities in Nepal. Currently, it operates 33 flight routes in around 15 destinations of Nepal and an international flight to Varanasi of India. Its main base is Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. It was the largest domestic carrier in terms of passengers carried in 2018. The company slogan is Fly with us.

History

The airline was established on 23 April 1996 as a Private Limited Company by Surendra Bahadur Basnet, a retired Supreme Court judge and former government minister; and his son Birendra Bahadur Basnet. Operations commenced on 11 October 1997 with a sightseeing flight to Mount Everest using a brand new Beechcraft 1900D. In 2001, the airline partnered with the Bhutanese flag carrier Druk Air by whom an aircraft was chartered. Within ten years the company had expanded to a fleet of seven 1900Ds. In 2008 a loan from the International Finance Corporation allowed the company to expand further by purchasing two ATR 42 aircraft. Buddha Air took delivery of its first 70-seat ATR 72-212 in June 2010. The name of the airline is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Buddha', a title used for the much revered Siddhartha Gautama.

Destinations

Buddha Air operates domestic flights to 12 destinations as well as 2 international destinations as of November 2019. The airline also offers air charter flights and daily mountain sightseeing flights. Buddha Air became the first foreign airline to start flights to Paro, Bhutan, in summer 2010, which was the airline's first international destination as well.
Buddha Air flies to the following destinations as of July 2019.
Buddha Air also operates scheduled mountain sightseeing flights from Kathmandu to Mount Everest range and from Pokhara to the Annapurna Massif. The flights usually depart in the early morning hours and return to the respective airports one hour later.

Fleet

Current Fleet

Buddha Air's fleet consists of the following aircraft.
The airline has planned to add 3 Airbus A320 aircraft by 2021.

Former fleet


AircraftIntroducedRetiredNotes
Beechcraft 1900C20032009

Hangar

Buddha Air is the first airline in Nepal, and one of few in South Asia to have a state of the art closed-door hangar facility. Built at a cost of US$2.5 million at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Buddha Air also provides aircraft maintenance facilities to other airlines as well, particularly the Bangladeshi airline Novoair which sends its ATR aircraft for maintenance at the hangar.

Accidents and Incidents

On 25 September 2011, Buddha Air Flight 103 crashed near the end of a sightseeing flight of the Mount Everest region. All 19 passengers and crew on board the Beechcraft 1900D died when it crashed near Kathmandu's airport while attempting to land. Out of the 19 passengers 10 were Indian nationals, 2 were US nationals, 1 was Japanese and 6 were Nepalese. The crew of 3 were also Nepalese.

Awards

Buddha Air is the current shirt sponsor of Biratnagar based football club Morang XI, who currently play in Nepal's highest football league, the Martyr's Memorial A-Division League.