Cosmic Air
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| Founded | 1997 | ||||||
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| Ceased operations | 2008 | ||||||
| Hubs | Tribhuvan International Airport | ||||||
| Focus cities | Indira Gandhi International Airport | ||||||
| Headquarters | Kathmandu, Nepal | ||||||
| Key people | Sushil Shrestha (president) | ||||||
Cosmic Air Pvt. Ltd. was an airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal. It operated scheduled domestic and international services out of Kathmandu Airport, aiming at foreign tourists. After already having been forced to temporarily suspended flights in 2005 and 2006 due to budgetary constraints, Cosmic Air was finally shut down in 2008.[1]
History
Cosmic Air was established in 1997 as a company wholly owned by Captain RP Pradhan. Flight operations started on 1 January 1998 with two Mil Mi-17 helicopters. In August 1998 Dornier 228 aircraft were added to the fleet. In October 2004 Cosmic Air acquired its first 105-seat Fokker 100 aircraft on lease from AerCap Ireland. In January and April 2005 two further airplanes of this type were leased to Cosmic Air.
At its height in 2005 international services were launched. Financial problems became public in November of the same year, when the airline had to halt its domestic operations after the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation refused to sell it fuel unless it cleared past debts of 125 million rupees. Operations were restarted after Cosmic Air managed to pay its first instalment of 5 million rupees. Still, Cosmic Air incurred a loss of 620 million rupees for 2005.[2]
2006 Another temporary suspension of operations occurred on 14 October 2006 because of technical problems with the airline's only operational Fokker 100 aircraft was grounded for technical reasons.[3]
On 1 January 2007 India provided a temporary maintenance and operational base at New Delhi. By Cosmic air flew only to Kolkata, Mumbai and Varanasi also, limited cargo flights continued into India western provinces Gujarat Ahmedabad.
Services
At 2012, Cosmic Air operated Non scheduled flights to the following destinations:
- Temporary Non scheduled destinations: Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai.and Varanasi
- Temporary Cargo Service destinations: Ahmedabad, Delhi
Fleet
At its height during 2005, Cosmic Air operated a fleet the following types of aircraft:[4]
- 1 Dornier 228
- 4 Fokker 100 (only one of which remained with the airline upon closure)
- 1 Saab 340A
References
- ↑ Cosmic Air at airlineupdate.com
- ↑ Nepalnews.com 2 April 2006
- ↑ Nepal Tourism Directory retrieved 18 November 2006
- ↑ Cosmic Air historic fleet at airfleets.net
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cosmic Air. |
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