Beijing has agreed to let Nepal’s state carrier double its flights to China to 14 a week and begin service to Tibet, Nepal’s aviation minister said Saturday.
Nepal hopes the agreement will expand the number of tourists using it as a conduit to Tibet, including holy sites in the territory visited by thousands of Hindu pilgrims.
“The air agreement concluded in Beijing will permit Nepal to operate 14 flights a month to Beijing, Shanghai, Tibet and four other points,” Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Sharbendra Nath Shukla told reporters after returning from China. He did not specify the four other destinations.
Royal Nepal Airlines was earlier allowed seven flights a week to China and solely to Shanghai. But the state carrier only regularly operated two flights weekly to China’s largest city.
Chinese airlines operate four flights a week to Kathmandu in high season, usually via Tibet’s capital Lhasa.
About 6,000 tourists and trekkers visit Lhasa each year via Kathmandu, either flying or travelling overland through the sole border crossing.
“We hope with this agreement the number of foreign tourists and trekkers could increase to as many as 10,000 in the near future,” said travel operator Bhogendra Raj Khanal.
Nepal and China are also discussing opening two more land crossings between the kingdom and Tibet and whether to allow Nepalese helicopters to move freely over the border.
The travel industry here hopes an agreement on helicopters could let them arrange tours for Hindu pilgrims visiting Mansarovar Lake and Mount Kailash in western Tibet, revered as abodes of the god Shiva.
Nepal, which has seen a rebound in tourism since a ceasefire was reached with Maoist rebels on January 29, is also hoping to draw more Chinese tourists.
Since July 17, citizens of China and six South Asian countries have been able to visit Nepal without visas.
Tourists from major developed countries including Japan, the United States and most European states are now able to stay in the kingdom for 72 hours without visas.
