Karnali Air Pvt. Ltd. was 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. It merged with

Necon Air Necon Air was a Nepalese airline based in Kathmandu. The airline was Nepal's first private airline company and was established on 14 September 1992 with one Hawker Siddeley HS 748 aircraft. The airline indefinitely suspended flights in 2003 due t ...

in 2001 but kept operating under its name.

History

In 2001 Karnali Air was, along with

Shangri-La Air Shangri-La Air was an airline based in Nepal. It partly merged with Necon Air in 2001 and eventually ceased operations in 2008. History The airline started operations in October 1999 with oneDe Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft. Its n ...

, part of an ‘operational merge’ with Necon Air. The Executive Chairman of Karnali Air, Narayan Singh Pun took on the position of Executive Chairman and managing director of Necon Air.

Fleet

At the time of closure, Karnali Air operated the following aircraft:

Accidents and incidents

* 19 September 2002 – A Karnali Air

Eurocopter Ecureuil Eurocopter Écureuil may refer to one of three related helicopter designs, each of which was originally manufactured by Aérospatiale (later part of Eurocopter Group, now Airbus Helicopters). * Eurocopter AS350 Écureuil The Eurocopter AS ...

on a medivac mission was attacked in Jubu, Solukhumbu and set on fire by members of the

People's Liberation Army, Nepal The People's Liberation Army, Nepal ( ne, जनमुक्ति सेना, नेपाल) was the armed wing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN(M)). The PLA was founded in 2002, in the midst of the Nepal Civil War initiated by ...

during the

Nepalese Civil War The Nepalese Civil War was a protracted armed conflict that took place in the former Kingdom of Nepal from 1996 to 2006. It saw fighting between the Nepalese royal government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) throughout the country. ...

. The pilot and one passenger were abducted but let go one day later. *8 August 2006 – A Karnali Air

Mil Mi-8MTV-1 The Mil Mi-8 (russian: Ми-8, NATO reporting name: Hip) is a medium twin-turbine helicopter, originally designed by the Soviet Union in the 1960s and introduced into the Soviet Air Force in 1968. It is now produced by Russia. In addition ...

crashed at

during a ground check-up. Seven people were injured.

References

{{Helicopter airlines Defunct airlines of Nepal Airlines disestablished in 2003 Defunct helicopter airlines