With Shree Airlines selling the last Canadian-made Bombardier CRJ-700 aircraft in its fleet and sending it to the United States, this variant of the aircraft has now completely departed from Nepal.

The CRJ-700 aircraft with the call sign 'Alpha Mike Bravo' reached the US on Monday night after a five-day special 'return flight'.

The aircraft landed at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in the US state of Missouri via Kathmandu, Oman, Turkey, Czech Republic, Iceland and Canada.

Shree Airlines sold the aircraft to the US company 'Regional One' for 4.9 million US dollars. According to the Kathmandu Customs Office, the transaction for this aircraft was completed through Siddhartha Bank. After receiving the certificate of airworthiness from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAN), the Tribhuvan International Airport Customs Office recently issued an export declaration form. According to the Customs Office, there is no additional tax on exporting the aircraft from Nepal. The aircraft can be exported after paying only a form fee of Rs 113.

CAN had granted a 72-hour special purpose (return) flight permission for the aircraft on Tuesday. The permit included conditions for flight route, altitude, customs and immigration procedures, crew insurance, ATS instructions and submission of a detailed report after the flight. 

The aircraft was flown by Shree Airlines captains Prafulla Vaidya and Saurabh Sinha on Wednesday. An engineer also participated in the flight.

Shree Airlines operator Sudhir Mittal had introduced the first CRJ-200 jet to Nepal in April 2017. At that time, Shree had expanded the domestic scheduled flight market along with helicopter charter by bringing four jet aircraft, two CRJ-200s and two CRJ-700s with a capacity of 50.

Shree Airlines is also the leading private airline company to start domestic scheduled flights using jet aircraft in Nepal. The main attraction of the Canadian CRJ jet was its pressurized cabin, low noise, high speed, glass cockpit, comfortable seats and short flight time on the smooth routes of Nepal, where the European turboprop ATR aircraft is operating.

The CRJ-700 is considered a fast, reliable and comfortable regional jet. While its speed and passenger experience on medium-haul routes are excellent, its high fuel costs, cramped cabin and inability to land at remote stall airports are major limitations in Nepal. This is why turboprop aircraft like the Dash-8 and ATR were deemed more suitable for Nepal.

After the CRJ-700 could not compete with the ATR due to high operating and maintenance costs, Shree Airlines sold its first CRJ-700 ‘Alpha Mike Oscar’ to South Africa’s ‘Same Air’ about eight months ago. The aircraft is currently flying commercially from Johannesburg. Shree said that the second and last remaining CRJ-700 arrived in the US on Monday. With this, Shree’s fleet has zero CRJ-700 aircraft.

However, Shree Airlines has said that it will not immediately phase out the two CRJ-200 variants, which are smaller than these aircraft. Currently, Shree has seven Dash-8 Q-400s, six Mi-17 helicopters and two AS-350 helicopters registered. Not all of these are in service.

With a total of 16 aircraft (aircraft and helicopters), Shree Airlines is the second largest private aviation organization in Nepal after Buddha Air in terms of numbers. The company employs about 60 pilots in flight operations alone.

According to a high-ranking official of Shree Airlines, the company has adopted a strategy of limiting itself to two types of fleet for the time being.

The company is preparing to start international flights on Kathmandu-Delhi, Kolkata and Dhaka destinations using Boeing 737 aircraft within the next one year. Shree, which has already received preliminary approval from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, is now awaiting final approval from CAN.

Started in 1999 as ‘Air Ananya’, Shree Airlines is the largest operator of Russian Mi-17 helicopters in Southeast Asia. It is also the first Nepali airline to be a partner airline of the United Nations and the World Food Programme.