Kathmandu, Oct. 11
Buddha Air has completed 23 years in
operation. The company has conducted its first flight service on October 11, 1997
with Beach Craft 1900 aeroplanes.
Today, the company has 13 aircraft, 1,100
employees and trust of millions of customers, Buddha Air said in a statement on
Sunday.
According to Birendra Bahadur Basnet,
Managing Director of the company, the coronavirus pandemic has seriously
affected every business sector and all the aircraft were grounded from the day
lockdown was imposed on 24 March this year.
"We have to maintain the expenditures
for the care, repair and human resources even when the aircraft were grounded.
For the past six months, there was no income but we had to manage the
expenditures," he said.
However, he said, the company regularly
paid the salary of 1,100 staff. "Our first priority was to facilitate our
employees in managing their lives and keeping the aeroplanes safe and
sound," he said and added that the company did not cut the jobs during the
lockdown.
Buddha Air had developed a safety manual to
operate the safe flight services which was the first of its kind in the
country. It provided training and PPEs to its staff and conducted simulation
flight services to all destinations across the country.
The company said that it had slashed the
existing flight charges.
Basnet said that if the tourism and
aviation businesses were run safely with health safety protocols, the market
would gain confidence and could contribute to the economy.
Published in The Rising Nepal on 12 October 2020.
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