Kathmandu, 26, Sep: Sajit Poudel from Tanahun, who has been working in Chanzhou, China for two years, had booked a Nepal Airlines flight from Guangzhou to return home for Dashain. After a two-hour flight from Chanzhou to Guangzhou, he regretted choosing Nepal Airlines. Scheduled to depart at 5:30 a.m. Friday (China time), the flight was suddenly canceled without explanation.
Along with Poudel, 143 passengers were left stranded and taken to a hotel by Nepal Airlines. As of now, they have not been informed about when they will be flown back to Nepal. Informally, they were told there might be a rescheduled flight on Saturday morning.
Promotional Flight Mishandled, International Embarrassment for Nepal
Nepal Airlines had planned its inaugural promotional flight to Guangzhou on Thursday night at 10 p.m. with much fanfare, even flying nearly three dozen invitees at its own expense. The airline’s chairman, Yubraj Adhikari, was also on board. However, after boarding passes were issued, they realized the flight plan had not been approved, making it impossible to land at Guangzhou airport.
The cancellation forced the airline to reschedule, later announcing a Friday afternoon flight. Sources said the flight plan approval finally came through on Friday afternoon, with plans to depart again at 10 p.m. The negligence drew sharp criticism, with stranded passengers—including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean nationals—saying they would never fly Nepal Airlines again. Even government guests invited for the promotional event expressed shock at the level of mismanagement.
Criticism of Wasteful Spending Amid Government’s Austerity Rules
High-level government officials, airline staff, travel agency representatives, artists, and even an eight-member dance troupe were included in the promotional team flown at Nepal Airlines’ expense. The plan was for the delegation to stay in China for four days and return on September 29. However, after the first flight was canceled, some invitees refused to travel further.
This comes despite the government’s recent cabinet decision on September 21 to restrict foreign trips for all government entities—except under essential circumstances—as part of post-disaster recovery and cost-cutting measures. The decision also limited official delegations funded by the government to a maximum of 10 members, and only three in non-essential visits.
Since the Guangzhou flight was promotional, not essential, critics argue Nepal Airlines violated the spirit of the austerity decision by spending heavily to send over three dozen people abroad, turning the incident into both a financial and reputational setback for the national flag carrier.
