Buddha Air started its operation in 11 October 1997 with one Beechcraft 1900D, six commanders, six co pilots flying out to five destinations within Nepal. Today the company has five Beechcraft 1900D, three ATR 42 and employs 21 commanders, 18 co-pilots (first officers), 32 cabin crew members 5 dispatchers and 11 support staff in the Operations Department thus eliminating over fatigue of pilots, one of the major causes of aviation accidents all over the world. All commanders have logged in at least 4000 flight hours in the Beechcraft and over 8000 hours in total. The company has also established and obtained approval of Beechcraft 1900 type rating training of the flight crew members and flight dispatcher from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal with the objective of keeping the crew updated in respect to the aircrafts. All Buddha Air crew members have instrument rating endorsed in their license while cockpit and cabin crew members are provided refresher courses on safety aspects of the flight and in providing a comfortable flying experience to passengers. Our five flight dispatchers hold licenses from the civil aviation authorities of Thailand and Nepal.

Board of Promoters

Buddha Air is a family owned operation. There are three proprietors (promoters) in the board, the Chairman Mr. Surendra Bahadur Basnet, the Managing Director Mr. Birendra Bahadur Basnet, and Promoter Mrs. Sunita Sijapati Basnet.

Board Chairman Surendra Bahadur Basnet was born in Dingla, Bhojpur on 1 January 1929 in a simple Nepali family. After moving to Biratnagar where he received his primary and higher secondary education he was sent to the Varanasi Hindu University in India as was the custom of the days. He completed his LLB, BSC and then his MA from the University before returning to Nepal to practice law.

Mr Basnet was appointed a judge in the Supreme Court of Nepal in 1964. Two years later the then King Mahendra appointed him the Election Commissioner of Nepal with the responsibility of conducting the country’s first general election. He was later appointed Minister of Education and Law as well as the Minister for Finance and Industry. In 1970 he became the first chairman of the Press Council of Nepal. He served in various government commissions in the capacity of the chairman and or a member until 1990. After more than four decades of an illustrious career Mr. Basnet retired from civil service to manage his privately owned Bahumukhi Krishi Farm in Dangihat, (Morang?). However not being one to lead an easy retired life he formed Buddha Air with his sons and has successfully lead the organisation as its Chairman since 1996.

Birendra Bahadur Basnet, eldest son of Mr. Surendra Basnet, was born on 6 July, 1964. He received his primary and secondary education from Budhanilkantha High School where he inculcated the fundamental values of life which he would implement in, one of Nepal’s most prestigious institutions. After finishing his graduation from Tribhuvan University, he started working in his father’s farm in Morang from 1984 to 1992 during which period he successfully introduced new

He initiated Buddha Air together with his father, brother and wife, and has successfully run the company as its Managing Director. He is also a Board member of Shikhar Insurance Company since 2005 as well as of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal since 2008. He is an active member of his alumni association the Society of Ex Budhanilkantha Students and was its General Secretary in 1982 and an Executive Member in 1983. Having come from an agricultural background he has initiated community development through assistance to farmers in his native Morang, assisting to establish a farmer’s cooperative there. He is married to Sunita Sijapati Basnet.

Sunita Sijapati Basnet is a Nepali citizen born on 03 May, 1966. She did her Bachelor in Arts from the Tribhuvan University. She has been in the Board since 2007. She is married to Birendra Bahadur Basnet.

Operations

The department is headed by Chief Pilot and Captain Devendra Bahadur Basnet who completed his Commercial Pilot License from XXX in Montana, Canada. He was granted Airline Transport Pilot License No. 085 by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal in XXXX. He was a co-pilot in the national flag carrier (former Royal) Nepal Airline Corporation from 1984-1990, as Senior Pilot for Nepal Airways from 1990-1997. He joined Buddha Air as Instructor Pilot for Buddha Air Beechcraft 1900 D in 1997 and has headed the Operation Department as Chief Pilot since 2000. Captain Basnet has over 15000 flight hours to his credit and is one of the most experienced pilots in the entire airline industry in Nepal.   

In 2007/08 the Buddha Air fleet flew a total of 22198 flights at an average of 33.1 flight hours on 61 flights per day.

Engineering

Buddha Air’s engineering department is one of the strongest in the entire airline industry in Nepal as it is the driving force behind the company policy of safety first and is the backbone of the company entrusted with the responsibility to maintain each aircraft in an airworthy condition and in top performance as stipulated by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and the manuals provided by the manufacturer.

For assured effectiveness engineering department is subdivided into Maintenance, Maintenance Planning, Workshop, Quality Assurance, Technical Records, Library, Procurement and Stores. The Quality Assurance division monitors various functions as laid down by CAAN and the manufacturer conducting regular internal audits. We have a stock of aircraft spares and components worth at least US$ 3 million including two engines, three propellers, three landing gears, gyros, ACMs, Heat Exchangers, special testing equipments and ground support equipments which help maintain on time departure. CAAN, Hawker Beechcraft, Pratt and Whitney Canada regularly carry out audits and we are proud to state that we do not have any outstanding discrepancies.

All our engineers are trained in the Raytheon Maintenance Training Center, Flight Safety International, Wichita, USA, Pratt and Whitney Canada and the Singapore Training Center. Buddha Air is the only airlines in Nepal qualified to carry out NDT requirements. All maintenance is done in our very own workshop and the company is in the process of constructing a state of the art hanger and workshop with more than 30,000 sq ft, again a first for a private airliner in Nepal.

Chief Engineer Mohan Bahadur Thapa heads the department which has a total staff strength of 81 including 16 engineers, 29 technicians and 36 corporate staff. A graduate of King George’s School in Ajmer, India Thapa did his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Mechanical Training Institute of the Indian Navy in Poona India from 1956-1960 before joining the Aircraft Artificer Course from Aero Engineering Institution Royal Navy (UK) in Arbroath Scotland which is equivalent to Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Diploma. He has also completed several short term courses in aircraft maintenance such as the Rolls Royce Dart Engineer Course from the Customer Training Centre Derby, UK. He has worked for the Indian Naval Air Squadron 551 in various capacities including as the Chief-In-Charge Squadron, Senior Supervisor, Chief-In-Charge of Seahawk Modernization

Marketing

Buddha Air is today the leader in domestic civil aviation with more than half the share of the domestic market. Our marketing department has played a vital role in generating market confidence backed by service you can trust. Surviving today’s cut throat competition would not have been possible without the 124 staff dedicated to the marketing department including 21 dedicated solely for reservation, 36 for front line marketing, 25 attendants or loaders 19 in the sales department 7 in public relations and 4 in corporate marketing. In addition there are a total of 94 employees in the sales offices located in Biratnagar, Dharan, Pokhara, Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj, Bhadrapur, Janakpur, Simara, Bharatpur, and Dhangadhi.

The Buddha Air marketing department has worked hard to ensure that passengers get the best of service and welcomes feedbacks which are looked upon very attentively. We also regularly interact with tour and travel operators with the objective of making travel as safe, reliable, and comfortable as possible. Our in house trimester publication Buddha Yatra is in its third year with 15000 copies of every issue being distributed around.       

The department is headed by Rupesh Joshi the Marketing Manager who has an MBA from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management in Pune, India. Joshi has worked in banking operations in Nepal Indosuez Bank Ltd and later in the Nepal Bank of Ceylon where he was instrumental in the loan appraisal process for Buddha Air. 

At present Buddha Air controls almost 50 % of the domestic flight market including 70% of the foreign passengers market and over 80 % of the mountain flight market.

Management Information System

Being able to adapt to the change in time is a basic survival strategy which Buddha Air has inculcated in its corporate culture. The Management Information System division grew out of the need to face the challenges and needs of a modern corporate house and prepare and execute strategic operational plans and monitor their implementation. Specifically the division is also responsible for developing, operating and maintaining technology, software, and databases for planning and monitoring departmental and overall performance as well as generating, compiling and disseminating required information for the management to make decisions.

The entire system runs on eleven different modules to ensure regular availability of information, continuous development and full utilization of businesses for formulating strategies and policies and include: Finance and Budget Control, Revenue Accounting, Local Reservation, Comparative Market Research, Personal and Payroll, Human Resource, General Inventory, Operation and Crew Planning, Engineering Inventory, Engineering Planning, and Royal Club Frequent Flier. Each module is designed to meet the specific needs of the concerned department. With the entire desk staff having access to modern fast and updated computer systems, information vital to run daily operation successfully is at the touch of the fingertips, enabling mangers to take the correct decisions and have it implemented effectively.

Senior Manager Rajan Ranji who joined Buddha Air in XXXX heads MIS which has 9 corporate staff constantly monitoring and analyzing the data. He did his Master of Science in Statistics from the Tribhuvan University in Nepal in 1991 as well as various technical courses such as Dbase III and System Analysis and Logic Design from the National Computer Centre. He has worked as field supervisor for the National Population Census held in 1991/1992, as statistician for General Food Industries and as Manager for several airlines.

Finance

The Buddha Air finance department has withstood the test of time particularly during the first phase where the company had to struggle hard to clear its initial loan in the face of tough competition and reach break even point which took up the initial six years. The department is responsible for developing and implementing financial policies, strategies, plans and programs, preparing annual revenue and expenditure budgets based on cost analysis, developing financial performance indicators, monitoring, analyzing and reporting financial status and information, collecting sales and handling cash and bank transactions, handling all payments as per the financial policies and rules, maintaining accounts of revenues and expenditures, preparing all required financial statements, including final accounts, checking sales revenues and control cash value documents of sales outlets, assessing and settling tax obligations and assist in conducting internal audit.

The finance department is today divided into the Revenue and Expense division managed by a staff of 32 including 9 in Expense, 4 in Engineering Finance, 17 in Revenue, and 2 in TIA Domestic Revenue. Each division works with its own accounting software keeping the rest of the management and staff on its toes encouraging them to work even harder to give the best.

The Revenue division headed by Senior Manager Ganesh Raj Lohani plans and coordinates revenue related financial functions working closely with external agencies as well as and other departmental staffs. Its primary task is to formulate and execute financial plans and policies, coordinate, control and disseminate information to all related departments, agencies, and partner organizations, as well as preparing its own plans and programs, supervising  implementation, monitoring progress, motivating the general staff, and maintaining its internal database.

Senior manager Ramesh Kumar Luitel who heads the Expense division has ensured that less than one percent bad debt remains outstanding while the Expense division keeps track of cost of operation measured by the hour with the dynamic budget system. The division plans and coordinates expenses related financial functions by projecting annual expenses, preparing annual budget and coordinating with external agencies and internal departments. The division is responsible for preparing executing expense plans and policies in line with the company’s objectives, relaying information to the related departments on time, preparing the annual budgets, ensuring easy and timely payments to external parties as well as maintaining computerized book-keeping functions. The division explicitly also works with other departments in preparing the annual budget and financial statements and makes recommendations on requisite changes in existing expense related policies to Executive Manager, Finance and Managing Director as well as  coordinating with internal and external auditor to finalize annual financial statements.

Starting with an initial investment of more than USD 8 million which the company was able to payoff in six years, Buddha Air today is worth over USD 13 million. In 2007 – 2008 it earned a total revenue of over USD 7 million. The projected income for 2008 – 2009 is expected to cross USD 10 million.

Buddha Air’s clean and transparent audit records enabled it to receive

A loan of USD 10 million from the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank for the purchase of the two new ATR 42-320. A third ATR 42-320 has also recently been purchased and will be service.

Human Resources

Buddha Air has a staff strength of nearly 500 people making it among the top employers in the country. Managing such a large number of employees to get the best out of them while ensuring that they are also satisfied with the company, especially considering that the service provided is responsible for the safety of millions, is not an easy task.

The Human Resource Department is headed by Khagendra Bahadur Basnet and has a staff strength of 16 including 4 corporate staff and 12 security staff.

The department’s primary responsibility is to plan and manage human resource functions to ensure regular availability, continuous development and full utilization of necessary human resources to get effective results from them while keeping them satisfied. To reach this objective the department develops HR policies and systems, plans for and staffs the HR needs of various departments, evaluates employee performance and recommends rewards and ways to increase efficiency through various motivational factors. 

More specifically the department conducts periodical job analysis, revising job descriptions and specifications, prepares staff recruitment and selection packages for various staff categories and administers them, organizes and coordinates staff recruitment and selection programs to make available the required staff as per the approved human resource plans and initiate, coordinate and organize employee movements such as placement, transfer, promotion and retirement as per the company’s needs and policies as well as staffs’ assessment and needs. It is also the departments responsibility to prepare employment terms and conditions as well as service rules, employee benefits and relations, develops and maintains human resource information system and utilizes and feeds information for major human resource decisions in the company, assesses and projects human resource needs of the company against the strategic plans and prepare HR plans and programs to meet the projected needs.

General Services

Buddha Air’s General Service department provides maintenance, procurement, supplies and administrative support for the smooth operation of the administration. Ambir Bahadur Deuba is the officer incharge of the department which has a staff strength of 50 personnel including 8 in the general service, 3 in catering, and 39 in transport divisions.

It is the department’s duty to prepare policies, programs, rules and procedures for providing logistics services such as non-engineering supplies, general maintenance and transportation, coordinate and monitor the implementation of logistics services policies, programs and rules, procure, store and supply non-engineering supplies, arrange for all general repair/maintenance works, and manage transportation and catering services.

The department also provides support to the administration in the form of assistance in planning, developing, implementing and improving management supports policies, plans, programs and procedures for the company, assessment of administrative services needs, preparation and updating of plans, systems, rules and procedures, providing necessary administrative support to all units as required, and supervising and controlling the utilization and maintenance of all available facilities (space, building, equipment, physical environment, supplies and vehicles)