As per IATA, the global body of the airline industry, international aviation is expected to see a gravitational shift from the North America and Europe to the Asia-Pacific region over the coming decades. As projected by IATA, China will become the largest aviation sub-system of the world with a total passenger traffic of 1.6 billion in 2037 compared to 1.3 billion of the USA. The USA will be pushed to the second spot – the first time in the century-long history of global aviation. India will take the third place with a total passenger traffic of 572 million in 2037. Indonesia will outstrip the UK to become the fourth largest aviation sub-system. In 2037, IATA forecasts 8 billion passengers (Source: IATA Press Release # 62, 24 October 2018).
This new scenario will have a natural spill-over effect in the Nepalese aviation. On the other hand, Nepal will have to navigate its strategic resources to attract disproportionate share of the Asia-Pacific aviation growth. The Government of Nepal had recently formed a civil aviation policy 2078 drafting committee. The committee, chaired by the former secretary of the Ministry, Mr. YP Guatam, was mandated to recommend a policy framework to address the challenges and opportunities of aviation in the forthcoming days from multidimensional points of view. The draft had offered recommended guidelines in all critical areas, such as safety, security, infrastructure, private sector engagement, foreign investment, passengers protection, provincial service etc.
The committee had submitted the first draft to the Honorable Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation recently. The Ministry under the support of AOAN, Himalaya Airlines and Simrik Air organized an interactive seminar at Hotel Annapurna Today. The interaction was widely participated in by the industry, experts, governmental organizations and the media.
After the inauguration of the function, Honorable Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation thanked the drafting committee and encouraged the delegates to contribute useful inputs into the draft. Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Kedar Bahadur Adhikary chaired the function, whereas participants offered diverse, constructive and critical inputs.
