Nepal Infrastructure 
KATHMANDU (RSS): In an effort to strengthen the aviation network Nepal is preparing to sign agreements with the United States and Switzerland. Nepal has already signed aviation agreements with 40 countries and the European Union.
“We have moved ahead the process of signing such agreements with a few other countries including the US,” said Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, joint secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. “Among them, the process of the agreement with the US is in the advanced stage.” Once the agreement is signed US’s United Airlines and American Airlines and Nepal’s national flag carrier Nepal Airlines will operate flights between the two countries. Similarly, Nepal and Switzerland are making the last preparation to sign the aviation agreement.
At the 41st triennial general assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) held in Montreal, Canada recently, the two nations had agreed in principle for a preliminary aviation agreement. Pradip Adhikari, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority Nepal (CAAN) said that Nepal and Switzerland have already signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and many other countries are also in the pipeline to sign such MoUs.
Nepali officials are finalizing the documents for a formal aviation agreement with Switzerland soon and we are ready to sign such an agreement with other countries which are interested. “We have sent the final draft of the agreement to Switzerland and the process of the agreement will be complete once we receive the text of the draft from there,” said joint secretary Lamichhane.
Currently, Turkish Airlines, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Air are among the leading airlines operating in Nepal.
