Nepal, Rwanda sign air service agreement

By A Staff Reporter,Kathmandu, Dec. 7: Nepal has signed a bilateral air service agreement with Rwanda. As per a press statement issued by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on Wednesday, representatives of the two countries signed the agreement amid a programme at the Ministry on Tuesday. 

Rwanda is the second African country after Egypt to sign such an agreement with Nepal. 

As per the list maintained by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the last air pact the country inked was with Australia in 2019. 

With the latest signing, the number of countries Nepal has bilateral aviation agreements with has now reached 41. Nepal has agreements with both its neighbours China and India as well as all members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) bloc except Afghanistan.

Nepal also has similar arrangements with Austria, Bahrain, Brunei, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Russia, the Netherlands, Turkey and the United Kingdom, among others.

 It is to be noted though that Nepali airlines are banned from flying over the 27 member nations of the European Union owing to its inclusion in the Union's Air Safety List.

In the statement, the Ministry also informed that it was in the process of concluding similar agreements with other countries. In November last year, the government had given the CAAN to ink separate air agreements with the United States of America and Switzerland.

Bilateral air service agreements, also called air transport agreements, are contracts to allow commercial air travel between the signatories.