By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, March 1: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is launching its first commercial flight to Narita in Japan from March 2.

One of NAC’s wide body aircraft A330-200 is flying to Narita from Kathmandu this mid-night at 1:25 am boarding 226 to 228 passengers including officials from concerned authorities including NAC.

Ganesh Chand, managing director of NAC, said that the wide-body aircraft which would depart for Narita would return at around 6.25 pm on the same day with 266 passengers.

He said that NAC will operate three flights per week in Kathmandu-Narita sector – on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Chand said that the NAC was expecting the Narita flight to be sustainable as it is close to Tokyo, the capital of Japan.

The number of booking for the month of March also supports the fact that Narita flight would be profitable to the NAC, he said.

Last year, NAC had cancelled its regular flights to Osaka of Japan due to lack of sufficient passengers in the sector.

“So far, we have received booking of more than 200 seats for every flight for the month of March,” he said.

The commencement of direct flight to Narita is expected to improve the financial health of the indebted national flag carrier.

Chand said that more Japanese tourists would visit Nepal after the commencement of direct flight of NAC to Narita which would also reduce cost to Japanese tourists wishing to visit Nepal.

The NAC has set introductory airfare of Rs. 73,000 per person for round-trip and Rs. 37,000 for one-way.