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Indian Airlines urged to resume Nepal flights

KATHMANDU: Nepali tour operators have urged Indian Airlines to resume flights to Nepal, suspended after one of its planes was hijacked on a flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi in December.

Indian Airlines suspended all flights between Kathmandu and three north Indian cities including New Delhi, citing security lapses at the airport in Nepal's capital.

An Indian Airlines Airbus-300 with 189 people on board was hijacked after taking off from Kathmandu for the Indian capital on Christmas Eve.

The hijacking drama ended on New Year's Eve at Kandahar in southern Afghanistan after India agreed to release three pro-Kashmir militants in exchange for the hostages.

"Both (Nepali and Indian) governments should actively seek ways to resolve this most unfortunate situation immediately," a joint statement by several tour operators said late on Friday.

One quarter of the estimated 463,000 tourists that came to Nepal in 1998 were Indians.

Industry officials said 244,000 kg of export cargo remained to be lifted from the landlocked Nepal, which does not have enough aircraft for extra flights.

"This has resulted in awesome losses in revenue to hotels, travel and tour operators, cargo and trade forwarders, shopkeepers and restaurants," the statement said.

Poor and mountainous Nepal, which has eight of the world's 14 tallest mountains, earned $152.5 million from tourism in 1998, up 31.6 percent from $115.904 million the previous year. -Reuters