Himalaya Airlines is turning its sights northward after being refused landing permission in India. The private Nepali carrier has charted out an aggressive plan to connect Chinese cities that are key outbound markets with a high consuming capacity.

The Nepal-China joint venture has recently requested the government to review the bilateral air service agreement (ASA) with China. Currently, five Chinese carriers—Air China, China Southern, China Eastern, Sichuan Airlines and Tibet Airlines—operate flights to Nepal. But no Nepali carrier serves China.

In 2015, national flag carrier Nepal Airlines applied for landing permission at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, but its application is yet to be approved.

Officials of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) suspect that Nepali carriers have been kept out of Chinese airports due to the significant safety concern (SSC) tag given to Nepal by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) in its audit report in 2013. Nepal has recently been removed from Icao’s bad books.

Himalaya has been eying Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan and Changsha as potential destinations. They are among the top 15 Chinese outbound markets or the main gateways to the outside world. “In view of our need to expand our services for promoting mutual tourism, trade and culture between the two countries, an application has been submitted to start scheduled passenger flights to Shenzhen, Wuhan and Changsha which are not among the air routes specified in the Nepal-China bilateral ASA,” the carrier said in its proposal submitted to the ministry.

Last week, the Tourism Ministry designated seven weekly flights for Himalaya Airlines on the Kathmandu-Shanghai route.

The two governments can sign a memorandum of understanding and grant flight permission to Himalaya to boost Chinese arrivals from new markets, ministry officials said. “The ASA can be revised later.”

Newly-appointed Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari has set an aim to increase arrivals to 1.5 million by 2020, and plans to conduct aggressive promotional activities in India and China this fiscal year to bring more tourists from the world’s largest outbound markets.

According to the China Tourism Academy, the official tourism research institute of the China National Tourism Administration, the financial capital of Shanghai is China’s top outbound market. Shenzhen and Wuhan are the third and ninth largest outbound markets. Similarly, Changsha is the 13th largest outbound market.

In 2016, Chinese outbound reached 122 million departures, and Chinese visitors spent $109.8 billion in overseas destinations. In Nepal, according to the Department of Immigration, arrivals from China, the country’s second largest source market after India, totalled 104,664 individuals last year.

“We plan to connect all these four destinations this year if the government gives the go-ahead,” said Vijay Shrestha, vice-president, administration, of Himalaya Airlines. “We have charted out this aggressive plan to meet the targets of the government and the private sector to attract 2.5 million or more tourists annually. The target looks attainable if we focus on two giant economies, India and China, that are our neighbours,” he said, adding that Himalaya was trying to penetrate the Indian market too. 

In March 2016, Himalaya Airlines had announced that it would be conducting its maiden commercial flight on the Kathmandu-Delhi sector after receiving its first aircraft. Two years have passed but Indian authorities have not given their permission. The carrier currently operates 32 flights weekly on the Dubai, Kuala Lumpur, Doha and Dammam sectors with its three Airbus A320 jets.