Himalaya Airlines addresses false rumours and allegations regarding air fare cartelisation

Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint venture airline, has been operating two weekly flights to Dammam, Saudi Arabia. Prior to lockdown 2.0, Himalaya Airlines had been offering 10 direct flights to Dammam in Saudi Arabia since September 1, 2017. With the recent resumption of flights, the flow of passengers flying to Dammam, Saudi Arabia surged for which the airlines increased the flights to four weekly effective from July 11. In the current situation, there have been misleading news reports and allegations across the digital news platforms, falsely accusing the airlines with airfare cartelization claiming the airline is charging high air fares for Kathmandu to Dammam flights and the stay-in quarantine facilities which was mandated by Saudi Arabia as well as Nepal government. Himalaya Airlines wants to address the rumours and allegations and clarify the reports that were published are baseless and misconstrued without proper facts and verification. The Government of Nepal and Saudi Arabia had published mandatory regulatory guidelines which defined unavoidable fare inclusive of stay-in quarantine facilities and related Covud 19 health facilities. In compliance with the guidelines, the airline launched a bundled fare with all the essential facilities to operate flights in this sector. The bundled fare includes: airline base fare, all regulatory taxes, airport to hotel transport charges, seven nights hotel room charges including breakfast, lunch and dinner and two PCR tests on arrival at Dammam. As per the Saudi Arabian government guidelines, individual passengers are not allowed to self-quarantine and are mandated to stay in specific quarantine facilities allocated by their government. Hence, this has led to expensive airfare costs compared to the regular unbundled fares. For further clarification, the airlines would like to mention that the additional hotel quarantine charges for Dammam contributes 60% of the fare while the airfare contributes to only 40% of the total cost. The airline has been ensuring free revalidation of tickets for passengers with valid return tickets for any sector and also for those who were previously unable to fly due to the flight suspensions.