September 3: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAN) is preparing to implement a standard that will force airline companies to go for merger. The aviation regulatory body is trying to implement the new standards through the tenth amendment of Air Service Operation Certificate Guidelines.

In the proposed standard, the airline companies operating in Nepal must maintain a minimum number of aircraft and the pilots cannot engage in other commercial activities.

Jagannath Niraula, the spokesperson of the authority, said that preparations are being made to force the airlines operating in the country to maintain a minimum number of five aircraft by giving them a period of five years. He said that if an airline company that cannot maintain the specified number of aircraft within the given timeframe, it can increase the number by opting for a merger.

Currently, most of the companies operating air services in Nepal do not have five aircraft. Among the airline companies operating in Nepal, Buddha Air has the largest number of aircraft. It has 16 aircraft of ATR-42 and ATR-72 series.

CAAN has proposed that the new company willing to operate air service in Nepal should have a minimum of three aircraft. Similarly, the authority has tried to ban the chairman, share investor, executive director, manager and senior position holder of an airline company from doing activities contrary to the policy and work of the authority and the government of Nepal.