Nepal's civil aviation regulator has been making decisions without thinking and withdrawing them one after another, spreading confusion among airlines and throwing their plans into disarray, industry insiders say.

On April 27, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal ordered domestic airlines to operate at least 60 percent of their total flights in the night time.

The carriers said most airports in the country lacked night facilities, and so there was no way they could operate night flights. They threatened to ground their planes if the decision was not rolled back, which the aviation authority did instantly.

On June 1, the regulator issued another circular saying that airlines wouldn’t be allowed to operate services without an assessment of en route weather. This decision was prompted by the recent Tara Air crash in Jomsom, which has been attributed to bad weather by a preliminary report.

The authority took back the decision after the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology responded that it would not be able to provide en route weather forecasts for domestic flights.

In June, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation released a document prepared by a fact-finding committee which stated that most domestic airlines do not adhere to the safety management implementation rate. The ministry, which is the facilitating body, also issued an audit, ranking domestic airlines.

Carriers appearing at the top of the list quickly spread the news and released the documents to their clients and agencies.

The “writer” of the report was attributed as the source of the data used in the audit. Observers questioned how a facilitating agency could conduct an audit without proper sources.

“The audit report was released to damage the reputation of certain airlines. A low ranking means the insurance premium will rise and passenger numbers will drop,” said an unnamed engineer in an airline. “All the data in the audit was taken from the audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 2017, except the ranking. But ICAO had already conducted a fresh audit in April 2022. That was sheer negligence.”

"The airlines were not informed about any such preliminary report, the basis of the investigation and means of assessment, and the scoring as well as the final report. It can be deemed unscientific, fictitious at best, without actual consideration of the safety implementation efforts," he added.

The report then disappeared from the ministry's website. Nobody could say how the report came and vanished; and nobody was held accountable.

Again on June 19, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal wrote to all airlines saying that they should base 60 percent of their fleet in airports outside Kathmandu.

The carriers have been given a June 27 deadline to carry out the decision.

The regulator has also made it mandatory for helicopter companies to have two pilots when operating VIP flights.

On Tuesday, the Airlines Operators Association of Nepal, an umbrella organisation of the country's private airlines, threatened to halt all services from Wednesday if the aviation regulator did not take back its decision telling them to move their fleets.

The association said that the decision was made in haste and the regulator did not even consult with them.

A few hours after the association concluded its press conference, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal called a press meet to deliver its response.

“The law forbids calling a strike in the aviation industry,” said Pradip Adhikari, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. “We have made the decision to ensure safety and to ease congestion at Kathmandu’s airport.”

These are a few instances of ad hoc decisions made by Nepal’s civil aviation regulator after Adhikari, who is also an engineer, was made its director general by Tourism Minister Prem Ale.

Two weeks ago, Adhikari had ordered a Buddha Air captain to be grounded for not greeting him with a “namaskar” at the domestic terminal, according to a source familiar with the matter.

The aviation regulator is not the only one wreaking havoc on the industry, the incumbent tourism minister too has done his share of the damage, insiders say.

Minister Ale, who has been hitting the headlines with his controversial statements for the past several months, recently told Parliament that safety had been compromised because “airlines import old aircraft.”

“Such a remark by a minister shows that the industry is in the wrong hands. Such leadership could damage the reputation,” said a former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, who did not wish to be named.

Speaking in Parliament on June 15, Ale said that he was making a decision barring companies from purchasing pressurised and non-pressurised aircraft older than 10 and 15 years respectively.

Currently, the law permits companies to import pressurised and non-pressurised aircraft up to 15 and 20 years old, respectively.

"There’s a common misconception that age might make the plane less reliable or unsafe," said Sanjiv Gautam, a former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal. “That’s generally not the case. An aircraft can continue flying indefinitely as long as it is maintained. The airframe itself is the only component that remains more or less the same.”

According to him, the fuselage, wings, engine, propeller, landing gear and other parts all have their finite lives–the period they are safe to fly before metal fatigue poses a safety threat.

“The basics is to check if the aircraft is airworthy. The airworthiness division of the flight safety department of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal makes a due check of each and every aircraft and certifies them for a year,” he said. “So, the planes are never old.”

Sources say that most of the controversial decisions regarding the tourism and aviation industry are being made at the behest of Ale and experts are rarely present to give their views. Nor industry stakeholders are taken into confidence before making any decision, according to the sources.

“We find out about most of the decisions made by the Tourism Ministry from the online media,” said a Tourism Ministry official, who also wished to remain anonymous.

Once praised by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for his bold actions, Minister Ale has been involved in yet another controversy.

“The airline industry has billions in investment, and the way the regulator is making arbitrary decisions, it will hurt their growth,” said Birendra Basnet, managing director of Buddha Air, a premier private airline company in the country. “It looks like the intention of the chief of the civil aviation body and the minister is to subjugate the industry’s players. That’s bad. We follow international standards.”

According to Basnet, the aviation industry is heavily regulated.

“There is no reason to impose rules one after another that are not in the favour of the industry,” Basnet told the Post in an interview.

"Fixed-wing aircraft operators are ready to send some of their planes to airports outside Kathmandu. How many of them should be based outside is a subject for discussion. But how can a helicopter company operate from outside Kathmandu?" questioned Basnet. “If these ad hoc trends continue, the industry will collapse.”

Minister Ale and the chief of the aviation body are perfectly in tune with each other, say insiders.

They make the rules, impose them and then when they face criticism, they even take them back, according to airline officials.

The minister’s intention is bad, say officials. “He imposes rather than facilitates,” said the officials.

Ale used abusive language against the [now sacked] chairman of Nepal Airlines, Yubaraj Adhikari, in an audio leaked by Annapurna Post recently. In two separate recordings, Minister Ale is heard threatening Adhikari with obscene words in his chamber.

On Monday, the cabinet decided to sack Yubaraj Adhikari.

Ale was also involved in another audio controversy where he is found abusing a young man on the telephone. Ale's secretariat dismissed the recording as having been manipulated to spoil his image.

“He [Ale] has become a terror for all,” said a senior official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

“No one wants to face Ale. He treats officials like his servants. He misbehaves with them,” added the official, who had once reached a situation to resign. “But my colleagues asked me not to make a decision in haste. They pacified me by saying that this kind of minister comes and goes.”

CPN (Unified Socialist) Chairman Madhav Kumar Nepal on Sunday said that Ale was facing problems for “speaking without thinking.”

“Speaking without thinking can land one in trouble,” he said.

The Unified Socialist’s decision a few weeks ago to change the ministers was blocked by Prime Minister Deuba for reasons unknown to many. Had the cabinet been reshuffled and the Unified Socialist party’s decision implemented, the current set of ministers, including Ale, would have been replaced by new faces.

Meanwhile, a complaint was lodged against Ale in the Parliamentary Monitoring Committee for violating the code of conduct for members of the House of Representatives.

Also, following his controversial remarks, three tourism organisations—Nepal Tourism Entrepreneurs Association, Nepal Tourism Entrepreneurs Union and Nepal National Tourism Entrepreneurs—on Monday issued a statement demanding that Ale resign on moral grounds.

“Nepal’s tourism industry is at new lows,” said Ashok Pokharel, president of the Nepal Association of Tour Operators.

The Nepal Tourism Board and Nepal Airlines have been paralysed, said Pokharel.

The civil aviation body has also increased the passenger service charge for international travellers to Rs3,000 from Rs1,000.

The tax discount provided to passengers flying within South Asia has been cancelled. Earlier, travellers flying out of Kathmandu to destinations in South Asia were charged only Rs700 in the spirit of regional solidarity.

Domestic passengers flying from an international airport have been charged Rs500 each, up from Rs200.

Passengers flying from Chandragadhi, Biratnagar, Rajbiraj, Janakpur, Simara, Bharatpur, Pokhara, Lukla, Gautam Buddha, Jomsom, Nepalgunj, Surkhet and Dhangadhi airports will be charged Rs400 each.

The airport service charge at these airports was Rs200 per passenger.

Insiders say that the fee hike will hit the tourism industry just when it is beginning to make a slow recovery from the Covid-19 debacle.

“Not only the industry, but Minister Ale has also been wilfully delaying crucial civil aviation bills. What’s the reason behind holding up the bills?” questioned Pokharel, a long-time tourism entrepreneur.

Two long-pending aviation bills, whose passage would have hastened the removal of Nepal from the European Commission's air safety list, encountered another setback after the tourism minister in March stopped them from being tabled in the House for discussion.

Parliament was subsequently prorogued, and the proposed pieces of legislation were once again put in deep storage.

“The entire industry is suffering as a result of the short-sightedness of the minister,” said Pokharel. “That’s not the way to work.”

Meanwhile, the civil aviation body late at night on Tuesday rolled back its order to operators to move their majority of fleets outside Kathmandu. Airlines too said they withdrew their protest.

More discussions will be held on Wednesday, said officials.