1950s and 1960s: early years The airline was established in July 1958 as Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation with one
Douglas DC-3. At the beginning, its services were limited to
Simara,
Pokhara and destinations in
India, such as
Patna,
Calcutta and
Delhi. In 1961,
Pilatus Porter STOL aircraft joined the fleet, and in 1963 12-seater Chinese
Feng Shou-2 Harvesters were brought into service, opening up the kingdom's more remote routes. Nepal's geopolitical situation produced a strange, politically mixed fleet, which was typically financed through aid programs from the country of manufacture. Seven more Douglas DC-3s were added to the fleet between 1959 and 1964. Furthermore, China supplied a couple of
Feng Shou-2 aircraft which did not enter scheduled service.
Bell Helicopters leased from Singapore were also used for charters. Two Russian
Mi-4 helicopters also flew on scheduled routes to remote points. The route network was expanded internally and externally, soon reaching
Dhaka in what was then East
Pakistan. In 1966, a turboprop
Fokker F27 was added to the airline's fleet.
1970s and 1980s: The jet age and economic boom In 1970, RNAC acquired its first
Hawker Siddeley HS 748 followed by
Twin Otters in 1971 and
Boeing 727s in 1972. Two
Boeing 757s gradually replaced the airline's Boeing 727s in 1987. Adding to the airline's struggles as the millennium approached, were allegations of corruption which periodically surfaced. One case involved
Dinesh Dhamija, who later founded the
Ebookers Internet travel site. Dhamija had been accused of receiving his post as director of RNAC's European operations in the early 1990s on account of cronyism with Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala. Dhamija won a substantial settlement with the airline after a bitter court battle over these charges. The former chairman of Nepal Airlines, Ramagya Chaturvedi, was jailed for corruption in February 2005. In September 2007, the airline confirmed that it had sacrificed two goats to appease a Hindu god following technical problems with one of its aircraft. Nepal Airlines said the animals were slaughtered in front of the plane, a
Boeing 757, at
Tribhuvan International Airport. The offering was made to
Akash Bhairab, the
Hindu god of sky protection, whose symbol is seen on the company's aircraft. The airline said that after Sunday's ceremony, the plane successfully completed a flight to Hong Kong. Raju KC, an airline official, was quoted as saying: “The snag in the plane has now been fixed and the aircraft has resumed its flights.” The company did not say what the problem was, but reports in local media had blamed an electrical fault. From 2000 until 2010, there were no accidents with Nepal Airlines' aircraft involved. This is the longest period without such an incident in the history of the company.
The 2010s: addition of Airbus fleet In 2009, at the Dubai Airshow, Nepal Airlines signed a
memorandum of understanding to acquire two Airbus
A320-200 aircraft with the plans to operate flights to the
Middle East and
Southeast Asia. In April 2014, Nepal Airlines unveiled a new plane after taking delivery of
Xian MA-60 aircraft as a gift from AVIC company of China. The "Red and Blue strips" livery were replaced by the new livery, which resembles the
flag of Nepal. On 8 February 2015, Nepal Airlines received its first
Airbus A320 aircraft, "Sagarmatha". On 30 April 2015, its second
Airbus A320, "Lumbini," landed in
Kathmandu. The aircraft was filled with 5 tonnes of aid material flown from the
Airbus factory in Hamburg, to
Nepal on delivery of the aircraft. The aid material was used in the relief effort for the
2015 Nepal earthquake. Both the aircraft were painted in the company's new livery. In 2015, Nepal Airlines flew 253,658 travellers, up 22.87 per cent compared to the previous year, which saw the transport of 206,430 passengers. Similarly, it flew 42,535 domestic air passengers in 2015, an increase of 21.60% compared to the previous year. In 2016, one of the airline's ageing Boeing 757-200 (Registration 9N-ACA) was retired after three decades of service because of the non-profitable operation with high maintenance costs; the airline sold it to
BB Airways. On 16 July 2017, Nepal Airlines launched an online ticket-booking service for international flights. In 2018, Nepal Airlines acquired two Airbus
A330-200s via
Hi Fly and
AAR Corporation. The first of the two jets arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on 28 June and the second one on 26 July the same year. The airline plans to expand its international destinations by operating the newly added wide-body jets to cities like Seoul Incheon, Tokyo, and Sydney. In November 2018, it was reported that Nepal Airlines was considering
Ethiopian Airlines as a strategic partner ahead of a planned reorganization. In mid-March, NAC retired its remaining Boeing 757-200M after three decades of service to focus on an Airbus-only fleet. The company is likely to sell the aircraft soon. During the
COVID-19 pandemic in Nepal, Nepal Airlines carried out rescue and evacuation charter flights while all of its scheduled flights were grounded from March 2020. In July 2020, Nepal Airlines retired its fleet of Chinese-made
Xian MA60 and
Harbin Y-12 aircraft, as they were found unsuited for operations in Nepal. In May 2023, Nepal Airlines Corporation issued a tender notice regarding the proposed auction of its sole B757-200CB registered as 9N-ACB (msn 23863), along with the engines, tools, and inventory. The reserve price is USD 5.71 million. The plane has not flown since Nepal Airlines retired it in early 2018. Since then, it has remained parked at Kathmandu's
Tribhuvan International Airport. ==Destinations==