The Little Airline That Could
Bhutan's infant air carrier, Druk Air, is thinking big. It is poised to begin simultaneous air links with neighbouring Nepal and beyond the South Asian region with Thailand. Having taken delivery of a brand new jet made by British Aerospace, in March Druk Air hopes to link the three Asian kingdoms at one go.
The venture has been developed jointly by the Bhutan Tourism Corporation (BTC) with Thai International airways and is simply called "Three Kingdoms". Druk Air will bring tourists in from Bangkok for three days in Bhutan and fly them on to Kathmandu. BTC hopes that the package will attract a more diverse group of tourists. Presently, visitors to Thimphu — officially restricted to only about 2,500 a year — are mostly from Japan, the United States and West Germany.
SPECTACULAR JOURNEYS
The Bhutanese airline, which started with a fleet of two 18 seater Domiers, has been steadily expanding its reach. It began its first international flights to Calcutta in early 1983 and added Dhaka to its schedules in 1986. Flights to New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport were begun in December, 1988, with the acquisition of the four-engine, 80-seater British Aerospace jet — the BAe 146.
The new aircraft, which is central to the "Three Kingdoms" package, was flown in last November by British Aerospace pilots to Paro, where Bhutan's only airport nestles among paddy fields. The inaugural flight to New Delhi took place just a few days later. The journey takes a little over two hours and is regarded as a great time saver for travelers going West who had previously to catch connections from Calcutta. As a Finnish U.N. official put it, "Once you have traveled on the new plane to Delhi, you don't want to go any other way!"
The flight from Paro to Kathmandu will be one of the most spectacular of Himalayan flights. For about an hour,Druk Air's jet, with its distinctive national colours of saffron and orange, will cruise past the length of the Eastern Himalaya, taking into view Bhutan's own Chomolhari, then Kanchenjunga, Makalu, Everest, Gauri Shanker, and on to Kathmandu Valley.
"The flight to Kathmandu will be a real treat," says Brent Olson of Inner Asia, an American travel agency specialising in Bhutan, Nepal and Tibet. "The new Bangkok sector will make it much easier for travelers to get to Bhutan. These new routes open up the possibilities for interesting tours in the Himalaya. A possible package could include Thimphu, Kathmandu and Lhasa."
FIRST COMMERCIAL LOAN
Buying a U$ 28 million aircraft was a major project for Bhutan. For this purpose, it took its first commercial loan ever from a consortium of international banks, led by the Standard Chartered Merchant Bank of London. The British Government was also involved in the transaction, which is the biggest single loan of any type taken out by Thimphu.
Bhutan's civil aviation authorities have begun work on a new passenger terminal in Paro, Druk Air's increasingly important hub. A hangar is also nearing completion for engineering and maintenance works. Meanwhile, Thai International is helping train Druk Air's cabin and ground crew so that they are prepared for the expanded network.
As the new routes are being finalised, and in between the scheduled runs to Calcutta and New Delhi, Druk Air is leasing its jet to Indian Airlines, which is presently extremely short of planes.
According to Bhutanese officials, the existing air links, as well as those being planned, are part of a continuing move to strengthen cooperation within the South Asian region, and also a first step towards closer relations with South East Asia. "We have plans to eventually link Paro to all the capitals of the SAARC countries," says Druk Air Managing Director Ugen Namgyel. "Now that Bhutan has entered the jet age, who knows? The sky is the limit!'