Every flight into Kathmandu is more than 80 percent booked from mid-September to October-end. The September-November period is the high season for airlines as this is when most foreign tourists visit Nepal and migrant Nepali workers and students return home to celebrate the Dashain and Tihar festivals with their families.

The Kathmandu-Delhi route is the busiest sector with bookings surpassing 80 percent from September 20 to the last week of October.

Jet Airways, which flies the Kathmandu-Delhi sector thrice daily, has limited seats to offer. According to travel agencies, a one-way ticket that costs Rs 12,000 to Rs 13,000 now has been priced at Rs 40,000 from Sept 20 onwards.

Similarly, flights on India’s national flag carrier Air India are almost fully booked from mid-September to October-end.  

Mumbai-Kathmandu flights are almost fully booked from September 20 until November 15. The one-way fare for the Delhi-Kathmandu sector on India’s budget carriers like SpiceJet and Indigo has jumped to an average Rs 30,000 from mid-September from the current Rs 12,000.   

Reservations on Turkish Airlines, which operates direct flights to Europe daily, have crossed 70 percent for the period mid-September to November 10. Travel agencies said that airfares on the Paris-Kathmandu route have been jacked up to Rs 115,000 from the normal Rs 74,000 from mid-September. The lowest fare on the New York-Kathmandu route after mid-September is Rs 115,000 compared to the usual Rs 75,000.

Meanwhile, economy class seats on Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways have been sold out from September 17 to the first week of October and from mid-October to the third week of November. It flies twice daily to Kathmandu.

Reservations on Qatar Airways have risen from the second week of October and the trend has continued until November 17, according to ticketing agencies in Nepal. Reservations on its London-Kathmandu flights have crossed 85 percent.

However, occupancy on the Kuala Lumpur-Kathmandu sector that used to be a very busy route in the past years has so far been dismal. Reservation on Nepal Airlines and Air Asia have been modest, while Malaysia Airlines reservations have been at their lowest.

Nepali travel agencies said that two crashes of Malaysia Airlines had led to drop in its passenger occupancy. Malaysia Airlines, which entered the Nepali market in September 2012, flew 96,999 travellers in 2013.    

“As Nepali travellers have a habit of making their reservations at the last hour, reservations on the Kuala Lumpur-Kathmandu sector have been good so far,” said Shyam Raj Thapaliya, managing director of Osho World Travel Nepal. He added that as Malaysia was among Nepal’s top labour destinations, bookings on this sector surge dramatically at the last hour but travellers will have to pay more. Thapaliya said the current reservation pattern had shown good tourist movement prospects for this year as almost half of the international airlines connecting Nepal operate two daily flights nowadays.

“The September-November period sees 80 percent inbound occupancy of tourists and the rest are Nepali travellers,” he said, adding that except September-November and March-May, all the carriers depend on Nepali migrant workers and students and their parents travelling abroad for their business.     

Travel agencies said that even June-July that used to be considered a slack season for foreign carriers in Nepal are now fully occupied and no price wars occur nowadays.

Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) recorded double-digit growth in passenger traffic in the first three months of 2014 with outbound Nepali migrant workers turning into a flood. According to TIA, the number of incoming and outgoing travellers jumped 16.14 percent to 832,944 during the period January-March.

The reservation trend shows that inbound from China too has been good. Air China flights on the Chengdu-Kathmandu sector are almost fully booked from September 26 to October 10. Reservations on the Lhasa-Kathmandu sector have crossed 80 percent from September 13 to October 10.   

Likewise, one of the two daily Guangzhou-Kathmandu flights of China Southern is almost fully booked from mid-September. It recently added another flight on the sector. The airfare for the Guangzhou-Kathmandu flight is Rs 47,000 until September 8 and Rs 69,000 from September 25 onwards.

Dragon Air’s Hong Kong-Kathmandu flights are 85 percent booked from September 21 to October 10, while Korean Air flights are fully booked from September 22 onwards. Likewise, bookings on the Muscat-Kathmandu and Bangkok-Kathmandu flights have crossed 80 percent and 70 percent respectively from mid-September onwards.

Travel agencies said that seats on the Dubai-based Fly Dubai were 90 percent booked from September 15 to October 9. The ticket price will increase to Rs 39,000 from September 25 onwards from the normal Rs 20,000.