NATIONAL 6 -(Spotlight Weekly)]

Flight Resumes

Nearly six months after suspension, Indian Airlines resumes its flight to Kathmandu

By KESHAB POUDEL

The Christmas eve hijacking drama of the Indian Airlines plane that saw the New Delhi-bound IC814 make a round trip around the subcontinent before stationing at Kandahar in Afghanistan for more than a week ended here on June 1st.

As soon as the IC 813 flight landed at Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA) on Thursday, tourism entrepreneurs heaved a sigh of relief. But the question remains: on what ground have the Nepalese and Indian officials settled the security matter.

The timing of the resumption of the Indian airlines flight is good as the tourism season for Indian tourists is just beginning.

Never in the history of hijacking had any airlines suspended its flights for such a long time on ground of security lapses. Although Indian Airlines resumes its daily flights, Nepalese officials now have to keep their eyes wide open.

Jubilation on the part of Nepalese tourism entrepreneurs is understandable as Indian Airlines carries more than one third of tourists to Nepal. Likewise, for Indian airlines authorities, too, the resumption of the flight was good news as it is one of the profitable sectors for the airlines. The airlines is also said to have lost more than Indian Rs. 150 million in the last six months thanks to the flight suspension.

Indian Airlines IC 814 flight was hijacked when it was on the way to New Delhi from Kathmandu on December 24, 1999. The hijacking event ended after Indian officials released Kashmiri militants as demanded by the hijackers.

The plane first flew to Amritsar, then to Dubai and then back to Kandahar in Afghanistan where the terrorists held over one hundred passengers hostage.

In the immediate aftermath of the hijacking, Indian officials suspended all Indian Airlines flights to Kathmandu citing poor security arrangements at TIA and demanding that their own security personnel be allowed to be posted at the airport.

Although Nepalese officials rejected the statement of some Indian media that Nepal had agreed to allow the Indian security forces at TIA, the confusion still shrouds over the negotiations.

"An outcome of the hijacking drama was insistence by Indian authorities to post their security officials at TIA. "It is interesting to note that they wanted the safety of their aircraft more than the safety of the Indian nationals flying here from any other airlines of Nepal," said an eminent lawyer.

However, the resumption of Indian airlines flights to Nepal, though belated, is bound to have a positive effect on the country's tourism industry. As a major portion of the tourists coming to Nepal are Indian nationals and as a large segment of third world tourists come to Nepal via India, the resumption of the Indian Airlines flights comes as a good news to tourism operators especially as the new tourist season is just about to begin.

At present, the Indian Airlines has resumed its daily flights from New Delhi and five-times-a-week flight from Calcutta. Its flights from Varanasi are yet to resume. "They have assured us that the flights from Varanasi, too, will resume within few weeks," said a Nepalese aviation official.

As senior officials of Indian Airlines disembarked from the IC813 flight on Thursday, the water-tight security arrangements at the TIA was ostensibly visible.

With the resumption of the flights the sad chapter has thankfully ended but by not making their terms of agreement public, the officials of India and Nepal have left something nagging at the back of people's mind.