The very name “Royal Nepal Airlines” sends shivers down my spine – as it reminds me of one of my worst nightmare journeys I’ve ever had. So I will use the abbreviation RNA henceforth in this review.
This is a Nepal Government airlines and it shows!!! In terms of setting bad standards of efficiency, punctuality and reliability, it can give our Indian Airlines and Air India a run for their money.
My bitter experience :
It was in March 2001 when we had planned a week’s holiday to Nepal. We had to go to Kathmandu from Mumbai and another group was to reach there from Bangalore. Since the Bangalore – Kathmandu flight is only once a week (on a Sunday), the other group were able to reach there on one Sunday and return on the next Sunday, thus getting the entire week to spend there. However, for the Mumbai group, the flight schedule was twice a week – voila! But sadly, it was only on Mondays and Saturdays. So we had to leave on Monday and return on Saturday, effectively reducing our actual period of stay in Nepal to around 4 days.
Journey of woes begins:
On the ticket, it was clearly mentioned that we had to confirm the ticket and flight schedule a day in advance. Since our scheduled date was on Monday, I called up their office on Sunday (naively expecting that they would have a 24X7 policy) to do the needful. The phone bell rang and rang, and finally after the umpteenth attempt, there was a reply. It turned out to be the security guard who sleepily informed me that the office was closed today and that I should call up the next day at 10.00 a.m. What??? My flight time was 11.00 a.m. on Monday!!!
Anyways, next day from 9.00 a.m. onwards I was on the phone frantically trying to reach somebody from RNA. I achieved some success at 9.45 when a lady informed me that I need not worry – the flight was rescheduled to later during the day at 6.00 p.m. There goes one more day of my holiday – I said to myself! I asked her if I needed to confirm this again – to which she replied in the negative.
When we reached the international terminal at 5.00 p.m., we were led to a cafeteria for snacks with the explanation that there was a slight delay in the flight. No idea as to when it would take off since the flight hadn’t yet started from Kathmandu itself due to a technical snag. After a long and boring wait, the flight from Kathmandu did arrive at 9.15 p.m. and we took off at 9.45 p.m. to reach Kathmandu at midnight. After the quick immigration clearance, we made our way to hotel straight to bed.
The worst is yet to come:
After spending 4 lovely days in Nepal, when we studiously avoided anything close to RNA (by availing some of the local airlines during our trips to Pokhara etc.) we had to plan our return trip. Since the scheduled flight was on Saturday, we reached RNA office on Friday morning to confirm our tickets. Shock!!! We were coolly informed that the Saturday flight was cancelled (no not delayed, cancelled) So were we going to be stranded in this strange place?
Luckily, as it appeared, this was a regular occurrence and hence RNA had a stand-by arrangement with Indian Airlines to come to the aid of the passengers. But no confirmations please – that was subject to availability of seats. And that too – there was no Indian Airlines direct flight to Mumbai, we would have to go to Delhi and then take a Delhi-Mumbai flight.
Hmmm, with the uncertainty clouding our return journey, there was very little peace of mind for the rest of the holiday. On Saturday, we reached the airport (Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan Airport) earlier than required. As we stood in the queue for the Indian Airlines (Kathmandu-Delhi) flight along with other hopefuls, some officials of IA came along. All of us surrounded these poor guys and started pestering them for boarding passes. But no way boss – we were going to have last priority – first the original passengers of the flight were given preference. Officials of Royal Nepal Airlines were nowhere in sight and when some of us traced them to their offices in the airport – they merely shrugged and said there was nothing they could do about it. Finally, after waiting for nearly 2 hours, we were lucky to be accommodated in the flight, although we did not get seats together.
After the horrendous the treatment meted out to us by RNA, the rather shabby treatment given by Indian Airlines seemed like luxury due to our sheer relief of being accommodated in the flight.
Conclusion:
In our case, the experience was made worse since we were a rather large group with ladies and some bawling babies in tow. With all these incidents, secondary features such as in-flight food, attendant service etc. seem so peripheral that it’s not worth commenting. It’s possible that the standards have improved since the last 3 years, but frankly if you ask me, that’s quite unlikely. So all in all, if you guys have been patient enough to read through my sob-story, I hope you will double check before venturing into this airline, so that you don’t have to write a similar review here.