Buddha Air
Buddha Air Pvt. Ltd () is an airline based in Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Nepal, near Patan. It operates domestic as well as international services within Nepal and India, serving mainly large towns and cities in Nepal. Currently, it operates 33 flight routes to 14 destinations of Nepal and an international flight to Varanasi of India. Its main base is Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. It was the largest domestic carrier in terms of passengers carried in 2020. History. The airline was established on 23 April 1996 as a Private Limited Company by Surendra Bahadur Basnet, a retired Supreme Court judge and  former government minister; and his son Birendra Bahadur Basnet. The name of the airline is derived from the Sanskrit word 'Buddha', a title used for the much revered Siddhartha Gautama. Operations commenced on 11 October 1997 with a sightseeing flight to Mount Everest using a brand new Beechcraft 1900D. In 2001, the airline partnered with the Bhutanese flag carrier Druk Air by whom an aircraft was chartered. Within ten years the company had expanded to a fleet of seven 1900Ds. In 2008 a loan from the International Finance Corporation allowed the company to expand further by purchasing two ATR 42  aircraft. Buddha Air took delivery of its first 70-seat ATR 72-212 in June 2010. In 2020, Buddha Air announced first plans to enter the rural aviation market in Nepal by serving smaller STOL-airfields by Fall 2021. This subsidiary called Yashodhara Air was set up in January 2021 with the aim of operating by 2022. International operations. Buddha Air became the first international airline to operate charters to Paro Airport in Bhutan in August 2010. In 2011, Buddha Air began international flights from Pokhara Airport to Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, India, however these flights were  discontinued soon after. The airline also announced plans to fly to New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport in the future. Internationally, Varanasi Airport is also seasonally served from Tribhuvan International Airport. Destinations. Buddha Air flies to the following destinations as of November 2020. Buddha Air also operates scheduled mountain sightseeing flights from Kathmandu to Mount Everest range and from Pokhara to the Annapurna Massif. The flights usually depart in the early morning hours and return to the respective airports one hour later. Fleet. Current Fleet. Buddha Air's fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of March 2022). The  airline has planned to add 3 Airbus A320 aircraft by 2021. Hangar. Buddha Air is the first airline in Nepal, and one of few in South Asia, to have a state of the art closed-door hangar facility. Built at a cost of US$2.5 million at the Tribhuvan International Airport, Buddha Air also provides aircraft maintenance facilities to other airlines as well, particularly the Bangladeshi airline Novoair which sends its ATR aircraft for maintenance at the hangar. Buddha Air is planning to construct another hangar that can accommodate aircraft up to the size of an Airbus A319 at under -construction Pokhara International Airport. Trivia. In 2015, Buddha Air became the shirt sponsor of Biratnagar based football club Morang XI, who played in Nepal's highest football league, the Nepal National League.