The government has granted operation authorization to US-Bangla Airlines, a private Bangladeshi carrier, to operate flights on the Kathmandu-Dhaka route.

It is the fifth Bangladeshi airline to receive the permit after Biman Bangladesh, GMG Airlines, United Airways and Regent Airways. However, only Biman flies to Nepal. “The authorization was granted on Thursday, and the airline plans to start Kathmandu-Dhaka services by the third week of April,” said Pramod Nepal, under-secretary at the Tourism Ministry. He added that the airline had been allocated 850 seats per week.

US-Bangla Airlines is a subsidiary of the US-Bangla Group, a United States-Bangladesh joint venture company. The airline started operations serving domestic destinations on July 17, 2014. It owns a fleet of three 76-seater Bombardier Dash-8-Q400s.

Last year, another Dhaka-based carrier Regent Airways had received operation authorization, but it is yet to start services.

Meanwhile, India has asked Nepal to revise the air service agreement to allow Indian carriers to make codeshare agreements with foreign carriers. Nepal and India had signed a revised bilateral air service agreement in 2010, but it does not permit code sharing. A codeshare agreement is an arrangement where two or more airlines share the same flight. A seat can be purchased from one airline on a flight that is actually operated by another airline under a different flight number or code.

According to Indian media reports, Delta Air Lines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines will be making codeshare agreements with India’s Jet Airways to operate code share flights from March 27linking Europe and the US via Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with India and other destinations including Nepal.

Delta and KLM codeshare flights on these Jet Airways routes will provide customers coordinated customer service, a single ticket and throughcheck-in of bags to their final destinations.

A deadline for reviewing the air service agreement with India has not been set, but Nepal will recommendreviewing the airline company ownership clause, said Under-Secretary Nepal. The existing pact does not allow foreign joint-venture airlines in Nepal to operate services to India if the foreign company holds a majority share.

Presently, 23 international and two Nepali airlines fly to 23 destinations in 13 countries from Nepal. The country has signed air service agreements with 38 countries so far, the latest being New Zealand and Vietnam.