KATHMANDU: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has warned to take immediate action against the seven airlines that have not paid their dues till date.

Issuing a statement on Sunday, CAAN stated that it is preparing to take action against the airlines operators after they failed to pay the arrears even after three correspondences.

The civil aviation regulating authority warned to take action by blacklisting Necon Air, Shivani Air, Gorkha Air, Mountain Air, Cosmic Air, Skyline Airways and Air Kasthamandap.

Prior to this, CAAN had issued a public notice in August 2020, January 2021 and August 2021 urging the airlines and operators to pay the dues as the airlines and operators did not come to pay the dues despite repeated correspondence to pay the dues.

According to Clause 27 of the Civil Aviation Authority Act, 1996, the Authority has the right to recover the amount like the rest of the government arrears provided the airlines operator do not pay the dues on time.

Similarly, Rule 30 (3) of the Airport Service Fee Rules 2010,  grants CAAN the right to blacklist the individuals and organizations who do not pay the required fees restrict such individuals and organization from taking part in any activities or business related to the airline, airport and any work related to the authority and other business in the future.

CAAN urged the defaulter airlines to repay the outstanding amount to the Authority within seven days from the date of publication of the Sunday’s notice.

The Authority has asked Necon, Shivani, Gorkha, Mountain Air, Cosmic, Skyline and Air Kasthamandap to pay Rs 91.7 million as arrears.

According to CAAN, the Necon operators Deep Mani Rajbhandari, Mukundabhakta Shrestha, Deepak Raj Koirala, Rabindra Shrestha, Mrigendra Joshi and Ravi Chandra Man Joshi are yet to pay more than Rs 47.2 million.

Similarly, Shivani Air operator Manindra Lal Ranjitkar has to pay Rs 5.55 million and Gorkha Air operators Prajwal Shrestha, Dr Ujjwal Shrestha, Ginny Baba Shrestha and Surya Prasad Shrestha have to pay Rs 2.035 million.

Likewise,Mountain Air operators Pragyan Shamsher Jabra, Siddhika Rana and Shivendra Bahadur Basnet have to pay more than Rs. 610 thousand and Skyline Airways operators Aang Chiring Sherpa, Mingma Dorje Sherpa, Pemba Chiring Sherpa, Tenzing Norbu Sherpa, Yadab Kharel, Bikram Pandey, Kedar Bahadur Pradhanang and Uttam Krishna Kharel are yet to pay Rs 780,400.

CAAN informed that the operators of Air Kasthamandap, Prajwal Shrestha, Ujjwal Shrestha and Hamad Ali Jaber (Qatar) are yet to pay Rs. 738,447.