Air Dynasty Heli Service Pvt. Ltd. is a

helicopter airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in which ...

based at

Tribhuvan International Airport Tribhuvan International Airport ( Nepali: त्रिभुवन अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय विमानस्थल) (, colloquially referred to as TIA) is an international airport located in Kathmandu, Bagmati, Nepal. I ...

Kathmandu, Nepal , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Provi ...

, operating chartered

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

services. The company was established in 1993 and mainly carries out domestic chartered helicopter flights throughout Nepal from its three hubs in Kathmandu,

Pokhara Pokhara ( ne, पोखरा, ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. It is the List of cities in Nepal, second most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, with 518,452 inhabitants living ...

, and

Lukla Lukla ( ne, लुक्ला ) is a small town in the Khumbu Pasanglhamu rural municipality of the Solukhumbu District in the Province No. 1 of north-eastern Nepal. Situated at , it is a popular place for visitors to the Himalayas near Mount Eve ...

History

Air Dynasty was founded in 1993 in Kathmandu, Nepal, by Ang Tshering Sherpa. In 2001, the airline received a

foreign direct investment A foreign direct investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country. It is thus distinguished from a foreign portfolio investment by a notion of direct co ...

from

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

businessman Malcom Roy Smith, who held 50% of the airline and served as the

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the grou ...

. In 2005, the airline partnered with the

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainous ...

ese

flag carrier A flag carrier is a transport company, such as an airline or shipping company, that, being locally registered in a given sovereign state, enjoys preferential rights or privileges accorded by the government for international operations. Hist ...

Druk Air Drukair Corporation Limited ( dz, འབྲུག་མཁའ་འགྲུལ་ལས་འཛིན།), operating as Drukair — Royal Bhutan Airlines, is the flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bhutan, headquartered in the western dzongkha ...

, to which a Eurocopter helicopter was leased, after the government of Bhutan decided to introduce helicopter charter services in the country. In 2013, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

banned all Nepalese airlines from entering European airspace. This restriction is still in place as of January 2023 and specifically also regards Air Dynasty.

Fleet

Current fleet

The Air Dynasty fleet consists of these aircraft (as of May 2019):

Former fleet

Accidents and incidents

* 26 September 2013 – An Air Dynasty Eurocopter AS 350 helicopter crashed after landing at

Lukla Airport Tenzing-Hillary Airport , also known as Lukla Airport, is a domestic airport and altiport in the town of Lukla, in Khumbu Pasanglhamu, Solukhumbu District, Province No. 1 of Nepal. It gained worldwide fame as it was rated the most dangerou ...

. The helicopter's tail touched a fence, causing it to crash. All four people onboard escaped the accident alive, but the aircraft was written off. *27 February 2019 – An Airbus H125 crashed in Taplejung while operating a charter flight. None of the seven persons on board, including Nepal's

tourism minister The Minister of Tourism is the head of the governmental department that specializes in tourism, recreation and/or culture. The position exists in many different countries under several names: *Ministry of Tourism and Environment (Albania) * Minist ...

Rabindra Prasad Adhikari Rabindra Prasad Adhikari ( Nepali: रबिन्द्र प्रसाद अधिकारी) (4 May 1969 – 27 February 2019) was a Nepali politician and three-time parliamentarian, belonging to the Nepal Communist Party (NCP). He was ...

, survived.

References

External links

* Airlines of Nepal Helicopter airlines Airlines established in 1993 1993 establishments in Nepal {{Nepal-transport-stub