Saurya Airlines Pvt. Ltd () is an airline based in

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. As of August 2017, the airline serves five destinations across three provinces of

from its hub at

Tribhuvan International Airport Tribhuvan International Airport (, , colloquially referred to as TIA) is an international airport located in Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal. It has a tabletop runway, a domestic terminal and an international terminal. As the country's main internat ...

. Saurya Airlines operates a fleet of

Bombardier CRJ-200 The Bombardier CRJ100 and CRJ200 (previously Canadair CRJ100 and CRJ200) are regional jets designed and manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace between 1991 and 2006, the first of the Bombardier CRJ family. The ''Canadair Regional Jet'' (CRJ) pro ...

aircraft. Saurya Airlines was the first airline to operate the

Canadair Regional Jet The Bombardier CRJ/Mitsubishi CRJ or CRJ Series (for Canadair Regional Jet) is a family of regional jets introduced in 1991 by Bombardier Aerospace. The CRJ was manufactured by Bombardier Aerospace with the manufacturing of the first CRJ gener ...

in Nepal, also becoming the second airline in Nepal after

Cosmic Air Cosmic Air Pvt. Ltd. ( Nepali: कस्मिक एयर) was an airline based in Kathmandu, Nepal. It operated scheduled domestic and international services out of Tribhuvan International Airport. After already having been forced to temporar ...

to operate a

jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine, discharging a fast-moving jet (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...

aircraft on the domestic routes.

History

Saurya Airlines bought its first aircraft, a Bombardier CRJ-200, on 18 August 2014 and commenced its first operation on 17 November 2014 by conducting a mountain flight and a round trip to

Biratnagar Airport Biratnagar Airport (, ) is a domestic airport located in Biratnagar serving Morang District, Koshi Province, Nepal. Biratnagar Airport is the List of airports in Nepal, third busiest airport in Nepal after Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathman ...

from

Kathmandu Airport Tribhuvan International Airport (, , colloquially referred to as TIA) is an international airport located in Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal. It has a tabletop runway, a domestic terminal and an international terminal. As the country's main internat ...

after it was forced to keep its new plane grounded for nearly three months due to lengthy paperwork. The company later added a daily service to Bhadrapur making it its second southeastern destination. On 22 June 2015, Saurya Airlines launched flights to

Nepalgunj Nepalgunj (; ), also spelled Nepalganj, is a List of cities in Nepal#Alphabetical list, Sub-Metropolitan City in Banke district, Banke districts of Nepal, District, Nepal. It lies on the Terai plains near the southern border with Bahraich distr ...

which is now discontinued. At the beginning of 2016, Saurya Airlines was constrained to operate

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

flights as per the regulations of

Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN, ) is an independent civil aviation regulator. It was established as a Nepali government body in 1998 and is headquartered in Kathmandu. Before its formation, the functions of the CAAN had been perform ...

after the company failed to meet the minimum required number of aircraft needed to operate as a scheduled passenger carrier. However, the company managed to provide the service to the passengers by operating scheduled charter flights. In 2016, Saurya Airlines served 90,205 passengers with the growth rate of 3.76 percent from the previous year. In March 2017, Saurya Airlines added a second CRJ-200 to its fleet, and regained the certificate to operate scheduled flights again. This aircraft (registered 9N-AME) was painted with a "

Tata Tiago The Tata Tiago is a Hatchback, 5-door hatchback city car made by Tata Motors Cars, Tata Motors in India since 2016. Codenamed the "Kite" during development, the Tiago was previously announced as the Tata Zica, with "Zica" short for "zippy car ...

livery" as per the agreement with Sipradi Trading, making the airline the first Nepalese fixed-wing aircraft company to wear the international trademark on aircraft livery. In 2018, the airline was grounded by

, as it owed 30 million

Nepali rupees The Nepalese rupee (; sign: रु; code: NPR) is the official currency and legal tender of Nepal. It is also sometimes abbreviated as N₨ or Re./Rs. informally. The rupee is subdivided into 100 paisa, although coins of lower denominations are ...

in service charges to the airport. In March 2019, the airline cleared its dues and restarted its flight operations. Also in 2018, the airline was sold to a group of Non Resident Nepalis for 320 million

. However, in 2019, the ownership changed again, when the

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n Kuber Group acquired the airline for 630 million

. In July 2021, some reports indicated that the airline would rebrand itself as ''Kuber Airlines''. On 24 July 2024, 18 of the company's employees were killed in a crash at Kathmandu. The following day, the airline suspended all flights due to the lack of aircraft and skilled personnel.

Destinations

Saurya Airlines serves to these destinations as of January 2023:

Fleet

The Saurya Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of July 2024):

Accidents and incidents

* 24 July 2024 – a Saurya Airlines CRJ200 (9N-AME) aircraft carrying 19 people crashed during takeoff in Kathmandu, killing 18, the sole survivor being the captain.

References

External links

* {{Airlines of Nepal 2014 establishments in Nepal Airlines established in 2014 Airlines of Nepal Companies based in Kathmandu