Tashi Air Pvt. Ltd, trading as Bhutan Airlines, is Bhutan's first private airline. Its head office is in

Thimphu Thimphu (; dz, ཐིམ་ཕུག ) is the capital city, capital and largest city of Bhutan. It is situated in the western central part of Bhutan, and the surrounding valley is one of Bhutan's ''dzongkhags'', the Thimphu District. The ancient ...

. The airline resumed services on 10 October 2013, beginning its first international flights to India and Thailand. The airline served the cities of

Jakar Jakar (Dzongkha: བྱ་ཀར་; Wylie: ''Bya-kar'') is a town in the central-eastern region of Bhutan. It is the district capital (dzongkhag thromde) of Bumthang District and the location of Jakar Dzong, the regional dzong fortress. The na ...

and

Trashigang Trashigang ( dz, བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒང་།), or Tashigang, meaning "fortress of auspicious mount," is a town in eastern Bhutan and the district capital of the Trashigang Dzongkhag (district). The town lies to the east side of the ...

in Bhutan from their commencement until June 2012, suspending them due to increasing financial losses; however, following an agreement with the Bhutan government, the airline has resumed a full schedule of flights including Kolkata to Paro, Bhutan.

History

The airline, then known as Tashi Air, was launched on 4 December 2011. The airline is a subsidiary of the

Tashi Group The Tashi Group of Companies is the largest privately owned conglomerate of companies in Bhutan. It was founded in 1959 in Phuentsholing, Bhutan. Tashi Group has over 40 subsidiaries including Tashi Air ( Bhutan Airlines), Tashi Infocomm, T-Ban ...

. The airline began regular scheduled flights to Bathpalathang and Yonphula on 18 December 2011. After only six months of operation, however, the airline asked the Bhutanese Government for permission to suspend domestic flights. The airline resumed services on 10 October 2013 as Bhutan Airlines, having secured the

wet lease Aircraft leases are leases used by airlines and other aircraft operators. Airlines lease aircraft from other airlines or leasing companies for two main reasons: to operate aircraft without the financial burden of buying them, and to provide tempora ...

of a single

Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...

aircraft from a Lithuanian-based company. Flights to Kolkata and continuing on to Bangkok were offered initially. The airline was required to resume domestic flights by October 2014, per an agreement with the Government of Bhutan. Following the completion of its wet lease contract, Tashi Air acquired an

Airbus A319 The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a ...

aircraft with a seating capacity of 122 passengers on 1 May 2014. It received a second

on 30 July 2014.

Offices

Bhutan Airlines' head office is located in Tashi Mall, opposite Taj Tashi Hotel in Thimpu. The airline also has another office in Paro along with the airport office. The major offices of Bhutan Airlines are located in Kolkata, India and in Bangkok, Thailand - where they are represented by OMG Experience Co., Ltd. as GSA (General Sales Agent in Thailand). Other offices are located in

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

, Nepal and in Malaysia.

Destinations

Bhutan Airlines Airbus A319 (A5-BAC) at Bangkok Airport

As of , Bhutan Airlines serves the following destinations: The airline was awaiting clearance during 2015 to operate flights to

Bagdogra Bagdogra is a settlement in the Naxalbari CD block in the Siliguri subdivision of the Darjeeling district, in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is a part of the Greater Siliguri Metropolitan Area. The Bagdogra is well connected by air to six ...

, India. It was also hoping to start operations from Durgapur Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport, once MoU was signed between Tashi Air and BAPL Durgapur in January 2016. Other planned destinations include Dhaka, Singapore, Dubai, and Hong Kong.

Fleet

Bhutan Airlines Airbus A319-112 (A5-BAB) at Paro Airport

The Bhutan Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of September 2019):

References

{{Commons category, Bhutan Airlines

External links