Qatar Airways began flying to Nepal in 1995. Since then, it has projected itself as one of the most convenient connections to the Middle East and Europe. The carrier has increased its share of the market and has just added more flights on its Doha and Kuala Lumpur links. Nepali Times spoke to Qatar's area manager, Gyan Amerasinghe, about future plans.

Nepali Times: Why did Qatar Airways recently increase flights to Kathmandu despite the tourism slump?
Gyan Amerasinghe: Yes, we have gone up to 15 flights a week-11 to Doha and four to Kuala Lumpur. I find it difficult to believe that Nepal has lost a lot of tourists. All our flights are coming in full and so are others like Gulf Air. Even Thai has upgraded Kathmandu flights to Boeing 777s so I really don't think the overall picture is so gloomy.

Admittedly, this season is looking better, but compared to three years ago, it has declined.
We base our assessments on customers coming in from Europe like UK, Germany, Italy and France. We've seen a huge demand from that sector, which prompted us to increase flights into Kathmandu. It all comes down to inbound traffic.

So can we infer that Qatar is holding its own in the international market?
We are doing very well, actually Qatar is one of the fastest growing airlines in the world and certainly the fastest growing in the Middle-east.

Does Qatar have a target clientele?
The majority of our business comes from the labour market. For instance, we started with two flights in April to Kuala Lumpur, now we have gone up to four flights. That demand is actually from the Nepali labourers working in Malaysia. Similarly for west-bound traffic. But of course there's a mix of transnational labour, business and students. The majority of Kathmandu's clientele comes from the labour market. Qatar hopes the situation of the country changes and there will be more business travel.

Both Qatar Airways and Royal Nepal started the Kuala Lumpur flights together and now you compete. How did you manage to pull this off, considering governments usually gives national flag carriers preference?
Traffic rights are discussed between the two governments and we received traffic rights allowing us to operate to three points out of Kathmandu. We chose Kuala Lumpur, Brunei and we also have another option. In return, Royal Nepal can operate out of Doha to any destination in the world. Normally, flights that come in have time schedules changed and new ones introduced. We decided on with the summer schedule and so did Royal Nepal. We were in the planning process and we decided at that point to operate our flights in April. It was a coincidence.

If Royal Nepal Airlines were to be privatised, would Qatar be interested in a stake?
Not really.

What of future growth in the aviation sector?
At the moment flights are full because there are enough seats for those coming in. Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) has to find new markets and encourage others to see Nepal as a profitable destination. If the market stagnates, new airlines won't fly here. So, if you want Singapore Airlines to return, NTB has to promote Nepal in the Far East because a new Chinese market is coming up. Other things can be done even at the airport. Most of the airlines pay a lot of money for ground handling so I think services at that end can be increased.

And what about Qatar's presence here?
As it is, I think 15 flights a week is a very big operation and as far as operations go, Kathmandu is one of the biggest stations in the entire network. Qatar is involved with NTB, but we want to work with them more, especially in Kuala Lumpur. We're taking local tour operators to Malaysia for promotions and doing the same for Nepal, opening a new segment. At the moment, we have traffic going from here to Kuala Lumpur but not the other way around. We see figures going up with each flight. We were a bit worried when the ceasefire broke off, but by that time we had already decided to increase. The management decided we'd go ahead, which really worked. Once we commit to a certain market we can't pull out, so our efforts to promote Nepal, even in Europe, are quite high.