Airline revenues take off with rise in traffic

SANGAM PRASAIN
AUG 05 -
Growth in tourist arrivals and movement of migrant workers has brought increased revenues for international airlines serving Nepal. While luxury airlines benefited from swelling inbound tourism, budget airlines revelled in high labour traffic.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), total passenger movement at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport in 2009 reached 2,027,147 including 984,593 departures and 1,042,554 arrivals.

Nepali arrivals and departures amounted to 562,331 and 588,645 respectively. Foreign travellers accounted for 378,712 arrivals and 417,679 departures. There were 15,701 international flight movements during the year. Currently, 25 international airlines link Nepal.

Qatar Airways flew the highest number of passengers in 2009 taking a 12.39 percent share of the market. The airline carried 251,214 passengers on 1,396 flights. Gulf Air came second with a 11.76 percent market share carrying 238,527 passengers on 1,240 flights. Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) took the third position with 11.72 percent. It carried 237,751 passengers on 1,950 flight.

Likewise, Indian Airlines had a 9.85 percent market share, Thai Airways 9.19 percent, Jet Airways 8.28 percent, Air Arabia 6.48 percent, Jet Lite Airways 5.29 percent, Etihad Airways 3.84 percent and Biman Bangladesh 3.48 percent.

With Nepal Tourism Year 2011 approaching and the government aiming to bring in one million tourists during the year, a number of international carriers have upped their frequency. A few new carriers are expected to link Nepal from September. Malaysian Airlines, Oman Air and Spirit of Manila Airlines are planning to fly to Nepal, said CAAN.

Ram Kaji Koney, past president of the Nepal Association of Tour and Travel Agents (NATTA), said that the increase in the number of international carriers was good for Nepal's tourism. He added that the weak performance of the national flag carrier had resulted in increased business for the international airlines. NAC needs to get back on its feet to promote Nepal around the world, he said.

Fuel supply to resume today

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, AUG 05 -
Agitating unions of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and the NOC board reached an agreement on Thursday evening, ending a two-day stalemate that had disrupted fuel supply.

In a meting between the agitating unions and the NOC board at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, the NOC staff agreed to resume the supply of petroleum products from Friday.

According to Commerce Secretary Purusottam Ojha, both sides have agreed on bonus distribution as per the existing law. The Bonus Act allows any corporation to distribute bonus up to 8 percent of profit even if it has incurred a cumulative loss.

Babu Ram Rai, president of Nepal National Employees' Union, said the agreement has been reached between the board and the unions and petroleum supply will resume from Friday.

The unions and the NOC board were at loggerheads after the board reversed its decision of distributing bonus worth Rs. 198.8 million. The NOC had earlier decided to distribute the bonus from its profit of fiscal year 2008/09.

It had made a profit of Rs 3.31 billion that fiscal year. It, however, was forced to withdraw its decision following criticism from the government, the CIAA and consumer rights groups.

Both sides have agreed to complete the maintenance of NOC's old depot within a year. Likewise, automation of the new depots will begin within a month, according to Rai. The losses of the NOC will be managed through a loss management plan.

Due to the bonus row, delivery of gasoline by NOC to petrol pumps in Kathmandu doubled on Thursday. Normally, NOC's Thankot depot supplies 500,000 litres of petroleum products daily. On Thursday, the supply was almost double. According to Thankot depot chief Bhuwaneshwor Rajbhandari, 962,000 litres of fuel were

supplied to private and public petrol pumps.

The agitating unions of NOC on Thursday closed its depots across the country after 1 p.m. The unions had closed the depots all day on Wednesday.

With the depots remaining open for only three hours, there was a long queue of over 100 tankers waiting to be refilled at the Thankot depot.

Of the total shipment made on Thursday, state-owned refuelling stations received 50,000 litres of diesel and petrol, said Rajbhandari. However, there was long queue of motorists on state-owned petrol pumps on Thursday.

Yes... once is not enough, concur foreign tourists

SANGAM PRASAIN

KATHMANDU, AUG 04 -
Tourists making repeat visits to Nepal in 2009 made up almost half of the total arrivals giving credence to the travel trade’s advertising slogan “Naturally Nepal — Once Is Not Enough”.

According to the Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), among the 509,956 tourists who visited Nepal last year, 158,153 were making their second visit, 7,858 were here for the third time, 7,426 for the fourth and 18,256 for the fifth or more times. Tourists visiting the country for the first time numbered 318,263.

Although past records are not available, NTB officials and travel trade entrepreneurs said that the number of tourists making repeat visits had gone up. “This shows that tourists want to come to Nepal again and again, but negative publicity has forced them to think twice about their travel plans,” they said.

Aditya Baral, senior director and spokesperson of the NTB, said it was encouraging that repeat visits to Nepal were increasing.

“Repeat visits make the tourism sector sustainable in any country,” he said. Repeat

visitors usually spend less according to international trends, but that is not the case in Nepal, he added. Indian sent the highest number of first-time and repeat visitors to Nepal.

Among the 93,884 travellers from India, 54,120 were here for the first time while the

rest were repeat visitors.

Cultural ties, pilgrimage options and better air connectivity are the major reasons behind the large number of repeat visitors from India, Baral said. The US, the UK, France, China and Spain are among the other countries sending repeat visitors to Nepal after India.

Abhinav Rana, general manager of the Radisson Hotel, said that the hotel had more repeat corporate clients in 2009 compared to the previous year.

Despite political instability and weak performance of the national flag carrier, the number of repeat visitors has swelled, said Ram Kazi Koney, managing director of Gandaki Tours & Travels and past president of the Nepal Association of Travel and Tour Agents (NATTA).

He added that it was a good indication that the country’s tourism sector could flourish instantly if the political situation becomes stable.

Of the total arrivals in 2009, air travellers numbered 379,322 while 130,634 came overland.


Country First time visitors Repeated Visitors

India 54,120 39764

Sri Lanka 33,264 3098

Thailand 22,972 4425

China 22,689 9583

USA 18,646 13397

UK 18,233 17149

Japan 14,943 7502

Korea 13,042 3103

Bangladesh 10,990 4395

France 10,130 12024

Australia 8,312 7149

NOC bonus row, folk sweat

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, AUG 04 -
Long queues were back again on Wednesday outside gasoline stations in the Capital after the agitating Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) unions’ staff stopped distributing petroleum products from the depots. This is the second time after June-end that consumers are forced to wait endlessly for petroleum products.

Around June-end, the state oil monopoly, NOC, created a petroleum shortage clarifying it was compelled to do so as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) cut deliveries by 50-60 percent because NOC had fallen behind in its payments.

However, this time the consumers are likely to suffer the artificial shortage driven by the NOC’s staff. “It’s totally irresponsible behaviour on part of the NOC management and its staff,” said Ram Chandra Simkhada, secretary at Consumers Rights Protection Forum.

He said that the state-owned enterprise and the state recruited employees are making consumers suffer for reason as the issue is one that should remain within their own house. “We also smell a rat inside NOC,” he alleged. The government has 98 percent stake in NOC.

He added that it was not reasonable that NOC, with has millions of outstanding loans, declare bonus even if it earns profit for some period. The NOC had earned a profit of Rs 3.31 billion the last fiscal year and had provisioned Rs 200 million as bonus to employees.

“We are not hungry for the bonus,” claimed Babu Ram Rai, President of Nepal National Employees’ Union.

On Wednesday, the NOC management called the agitating unions for the talks to settle the issue. The dialogue was going on till in the late night. “We’re still discussing on the issue,” said Rai when contacted by the Post. Earlier in the day, the unions had meeting with Commerce Secretary Purushottam Ojha.

The NOC management withdrew its plan to distribute bonus after its Annual General Meeting (AGM) announced the bonus, Rai said adding, “The management has humiliated the employees and forced them to wage war for their rights.” He said NOC should implement its decision passed by the AGM. “We will be compelled to be on strike indefinitely period if the management does not heed our demand,” Rai said.

The ongoing tug-of-war between the management and the Unions is likely to impact the consumers more. As per the unions’ charted plan, fuel depots across the country have stopped their shipment to the refueling stations from Wednesday. The second and third day plan of the unions is to close the depots for a half day. Fuel tankers will be able to get fuel for three hours, i.e from 10 am to 1 pm on Thursday and Friday.

Saroj Pandey, President of Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association, said depots across the country were totally closed on Wednesday. “This will amplify the demand automatically and create crisis again,” he said. It would be impossible to address the needs of the refuelling stations.”

NOC staff on warpath over bonus stop

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, AUG 03 -
Agitating employees’ unions of the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) have decided to close petroleum depots across the country on Wednesday after the management withdrew its plans to distribute bonus.

The unions have also decided to close the depots for half a day on Thursday and Friday, a National Employees’ Union member at the NOC told the Post.

The unions have formed a struggle committee that has submitted a 13-point charter of demands to the management that includes distribution of bonus.

The trade unions have come up strongly against the NOC management objecting to the Board’s decision to withdraw its previous decision to distribute bonus for the fiscal year 2008-09.

“The NOC should implement its decision passed by the Board,” said Babu Ram Rai, president of Nepal National Employees’ Union.

According to him, other issues the unions have demanded are maintenance of depots, recruitment of capable technicians, formulating a petroleum and explosives Act, among others. The NOC had earned a profit of Rs 3.31 billion during the year and had provisioned over Rs 19 million for bonus to employees. However, the NOC board was forced to scrap the distribution of the bonus after the government, the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) and consumer rights activists criticised the move. The government has 98 percent stake in NOC.

After the CIAA directed the NOC not to distribute bonus, the NOC board had reversed its decision to distribute Rs 198.8 million as bonus to its staffs for the fiscal year 2008/09.

“We are ready to address all the demands of the unions but we cannot distribute the bonus that has been stopped by the government,” said Digambar Jha, general manager of NOC.

However, Rai said the unions were organising protests since a long time demanding improvement of the NOC. “We are not focusing on bonus only in our protest programmes, but the management decision to provide bonus and again withdrawing it has made the employees feel uncomfortable,” Rai said.

Rai added that the agitation would continue until the NOC withdraws its decision. The management had called the unions for talks on Tuesday. However, union members refused to sit for the talks. On the other hand, Jha said the management would call the unions for talks on Wednesday.

Bistros to get costlier

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, AUG 02 -
The Restaurant and Bar Association of Nepal (REBAN) is set to increase the price of meals served by its member establishments by 7-8 percent in line with inflation and the raised salaries of their employees.

The revised prices will come into effect from August-end.

Currently, all the eateries under REBAN are charging 24.3 percent tax (including 10 percent service charge and 13 percent VAT). However, with the revised prices, consumers will have to pay around 30-31 percent extra.

“We are compelled to increase prices as there is only a marginal 7-8 percent profit for restaurants and bars,” said Tejendra N. Shrestha, president of REBAN and proprietor of Yin Yang Restaurant and Bar.

Restaurant owners and labour unions had an understanding to review their pay and perks every three years. However, with the increased inflation, restaurant owners have been compelled to hike the pay of the employees every year, which was also the reason to increase the prices on their menus, he said.

According to him, restaurants serving local consumers had already revised their prices. However, the tourist standard restaurants are still waiting for the tourist season to increase the price of their food and beverages.

“All the restaurants and hotels should make 20-30 percent profit as per the principle of the hospitality industry to pay taxes and run the business. However, business in this sector was not going as expected due to labour related issues, load-shedding and inflation that has increased the operating cost,” he added.

Nepal Rastra Bank’s data of the first 11 months of the current fiscal year said that the price index of food and beverages group increased by 11.3 percent. The data said that restaurant meal price indices increased in the review period by 18.8 percent compared to 16.5 percent in the same period last year.

According to a source, the government’s recent move to make it mandatory for all eateries having an annual transaction of Rs. 2 million or more to come under the VAT net has also prompted restaurants to increase the menu price.

There are around 1,600 restaurants in the Kathmandu Valley, however; only 300-350 restaurants are in the tax net.

“The high restaurant price has affected the consumers ultimately,” Shrestha said, adding that the government should remove the Rs. 2 million threshold in the VAT system and increase the tax limit to bring all the restaurants into the tax net.

The government should encourage taxpayers by providing subsidies to those paying big tax amounts, he said.

Air tourist arrival up by 26pc in July


SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, AUG 01 -
Tourist arrivals by air increased by 26.1 percent to 29,338 in July compared to the same month last year.

The figures released by the Immigration Office, Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), reveal that arrivals from the South Asian region grew 31.3 percent with Bangladesh posting a rise of 88.9 percent, India 26.5 percent, Pakistan 10.3 percent and Sri Lanka 48.7 percent.

The increase in visitor arrivals from India showed sustained growth this year, except for a slight slump in April. Arrivals from India dipped 2.6 percent in April compared to the same period last year.

Visitor arrivals from other parts of Asia have also recorded a double-digit growth of 19.9 percent. China, another major source market, recorded a jump of 104.2 percent. Arrivals from Japan were up 10.7 percent, Malaysia 98.9 percent and Singapore 24.7 percent. However, arrivals from South Korea and Thailand have registered negative growths of 2.1 percent and 45 percent respectively.

Regarding long-haul markets, Europe registered an overall positive growth of 24.6 percent with the major source markets showing a positive trend.

Arrivals from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Switzer-land, Spain, Sweden and the UK were up 8.5 percent, 13.8 percent, 56.7 percent, 29.9 percent, 94.8 percent, 57.8 percent, 32.4 percent, 67.9 percent, 42.7 percent, 22.8 percent, 52.5 percent and 3.8 percent respectively.

Likewise, arrivals from Canada and the US also registered growths of 24.9 percent and 12.8 percent respectively. Australia showed a marginal increase in arrival figures of 0.9 percent while New Zealand posted a negative growth of 31.1 percent.

Meanwhile, arrivals by land until June 2010 totalled 60,877, up 6.2 percent compared to the same period last year. March remained the strongest of the first six months of 2010 with 18,620 arrivals, ahead of February (15,823) and January (7,492).

The Bhairahawa border point posted a rise of 10 percent with 42,190 tourists coming in followed by Kodari and Kakkarbhitta with 13,630 and 3,376 arrivals respectively in the first six months of 2010.

Aggregate visitor arrivals rose by 15 percent to 257,196 for the period between January-June 2010 (by both air and land) compared to the same period last year.

Foreign tourist departures from TIA in July reached 31,103. The number of Nepali arrivals stood at 50,309

while departures amounted

to 64,972.





Tourist arrivals by air

Month Arrivals (2009) Arrivals (2010) Change (%)

Jan 21,944 26,071 18.80

Feb 25,181 33,492 33.00

Mar 33,005 44,431 34.61

Apr 37,819 38, 694 2.31

May 25,129 26,634 5.98

June 23,222 26,997 16.30

July 23,266 29,338 26.09

Total 189,566 225,657 19.03

(Source: Nepal Tourism Board)