--By Gaurav Aryal
.jpg) |
| Suman Pandey Chief Executive Officer, Fishtail Air |
Fishtail Air Pvt Ltd, established in 1887 has grown leaps and bounds to reach the current position of being one of the leading helicopter companies of Nepal. The company is currently operating with three helicopters and is planning to add two more for peak seasons. With the expansion of the fleet and strength of services, Suman Pandey, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Fishtail Air hopes to serve more customers and is quite satisfied with what the company has done so far.
The company has never compromised on serving Nepalis either for bringing them from remote areas to the cities for medication, or in bringing pregnant women to hospitals in Kathmandu. And interestingly, three babies were delivered while the mothers were on board the Fishtail Air.
The Fishtail Air was closed down in 2004 because of the insurgency hitting hard in the tourism industry. However the company was re-established in 2007 under a new management team and new way of working that has taken the company to a new height.
Leadership for Growth
Pandey has been heading the company since 2007. It was the same year the company started its second innings. Pandey says that he is the first manager of the company who came from a non technical background. Pilots and engineers were the directors and promoters of the company.
Pandey, for the last 25 years has been working in the field of adventure tourism. His company Explore Himalaya Travel and Adventure is one of the top adventure tour operators in Nepal. “In terms of diversification, it is considered number one among other tour operators,” claims Pandey. Working for an adventure tour operator, he had an experience of utilising helicopters quite often and it gave him the confidence of managing a helicopter company.
Pandey feels that the need of adventure tourism has always been there in the tourism market. And, he saw the need of a helicopter operator to partner in this unique service offering. He says that during that time helicopter companies were not satisfying the need of adventure tourism. “There were certain areas that were unexplored. I thought I could be helpful in bridging the gap and bringing new ideas and innovations as an adventure tour operator,” adds Pandey.
He shares that helicopters were serving only up to the altitude of 14,000 feet. After his involvement with Fishtail, he and his team came up with an idea to serve also in the higher altitudes. Then the company started serving into the thin air of high mountains. Recently, a rescue operation was carried out at the elevation of 7,800 metres at Mt Everest that saved the life of a Nepali mountaineer from Canada who was also disabled.
Serving High Altitudes
The company has been serving its clients up to the elevation of 23,000 feet. In the company’s initial days, Mi-17 helicopters were serving Indian pilgrims visiting Mt Kailash and Mansarovar. Being a big helicopter, operations were not smooth as it required at least 100 passengers for one operation. So, Pandey says he came up with an idea of using small helicopter that have good high altitude performance.
Accordingly, the company signed for two AS B3 helicopters from Eurocopter, a French company that had best service records in high altitude. Based in Simikot, these helicopters started serving Indian pilgrims to Kailash-Mansarovar. Pandey says that Mi-17s have been completely displaced. With the new high altitude performance of new helicopters, the company has gained the strength as a company that serves in high altitudes of the Himalayas.
Rescue Operations
In the last 4-5 years, the company has carried out numerous rescue operations and saved many lives in the mountains that were usually impossible without the use of helicopters. Pandey says that today, helicopters can even land at the second base camp of Mt Everest, Manaslu, Dhaulagiri and Annapurna.
According to Pandey, a Swiss technology for rescue operations has been used by the company in collaboration with Air Zermatt. Since 2009, sling operations are being performed in Nepali Himalayas. He says that Air Zermatt has helped Nepali pilots by providing trainings both in Nepal and Switzerland.
Rescue operations soar during the peak tourist seasons for rescuing people injured in accidents and as well as stuck with altitude sickness. Pandey says that the company sets its priorities according to the nature of the case and seriousness, and carries out its operations accordingly.
Apart from these operations, the company also performs mountain flights, transport flights and sightseeing flights to both foreigners and Nepalis. However, Pandey says that the priority is set on rescue operations as the company believes in saving lives first. Fishtail Air carried out a significant role in rescuing hundreds of tourists stranded in Lukla because of bad weather in 2011.
Safety Concerns
The company feels that the recent embargo by the European Union on Nepali airlines is a sad incident. The company has geared up to comply with the highest safety standards, whereby it is planning to review its safety aspects and take all the necessary improvement measures. “We will try to prove that our operations are already up to the standards to European community. We will show the quality and reliability of our services both in operations and on paper,” promises Pandey.
Pandey says that a company can do extra than the listed safety concerns for adding value to the company’s services. “We are looking at adding some extra security features like bringing expert trainers from Europe and training our pilots and engineers and providing extra measures to support our safety standards to prove that Fishtail Air is a safe carrier.”
New Ventures
Looking at the latest safety concern, Pandey says that the company has decided to go slow because things look quite uncertain at the moment. He says that this strategy will prevail for the next six months to one year. He says that the situation during that time will decide how and where the future steps of the company will lead.
However, the company is planning to go into the hospitality industry from the current area of working- aviation. Pandey reveals that land has already been acquired in Lamatar of Lalitpur that overlooks the entire Kathmandu Valley and a range of mountains in the north. He says that the company is going to start a 100 room luxury eco-resort, a new concept in Nepal targeting high-end clients. He says that the resort will come into operation within three years.
.jpg)
| Tale of Fishtail Air Fishtail Air Pvt Ltd is a helicopter charter company operating within Nepal, with its base in Kathmandu. Established in the year 1997 the company has been involved in operation throughout the country with occasional Trans-border flights to Bhutan and India. With a fleet of four helicopters, which includes two AS 350 B3 “Ecureuil”, one AS 350 B2 “Ecureuil”, and one Bell 206B III Jet Ranger helicopter, the company claims itself to be the largest helicopter operator in Nepal. Fishtail Air operates flights for sightseeing, rescue, medical evacuation, business travels, project support, expedition works or any other purposes that need the services of a Helicopter. The company also operates support flights for trekking, which is getting really popular these days in the name of “Heli-Trekking”. Aerial sightseeing flights over the heritage and tourist spots is being quite popular these days to have a glimpse of tourist spots within the Kathmandu Valley in a short time and from different angle. Partnering Everest Skydive 2013 Fishtail Air has been operating flights for Everest Skydive from Syangboche Airport this year continuing the trend that has been in operations for seven years. AS350B3 Helicopter 9N-AJI of Fishtail Air is operating at least three flight loads for the Skydive every day. Exclusive partner for this extreme event since its launch in 2007, Fishtail Air also made the flight load with French national Marc Kopp who set a record for being the first disable person to skydive in the shadow of Everest from the ceiling altitude of above 22000 ft on 27 October 2013. Fishtail Air, has also been involved in carrying the skydivers back to Kathmandu after their successful dives. Spring of 2013 The company says that the spring season of 2013 ended with a productive spell. From the beginning of the season in March, Fishtail Air carried out more than 200 rescue flights as well as cargo shipments of over 1,00,000 kilograms. A handful number of mountain flights and search flights were conducted specially in the Everest and Dhaulagiri regions. During this season, one of the highest helicopter rescue operation was carried out at the altitude of 7,800 metre between Camp III and Camp IV of Mt. Everest. During those few months, B3 Helicopter was stationed in Lukla to provide quick services to the foreigners as well as Nepalis. Similarly, one of the helicopters was stationed in Simikot to assist and support pilgrimage tours to Mount Kailash during emergencies. |
