Come 2014, the National Airline, Drukair will operate international flights to Hong Kong and Mumbai. At present, Drukair has international flights to Singapore, Thailand, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kolkata and New Delhi in India.
The opening of air routes to Hongkong and Mumbai was planned based on the increasing number of tourists’ arrivals from Japan, Taiwan, China, Korea, the US and western parts of India.
“Hongkong is another important gateway as far as tourists coming in from Japan, China, Korea and US, we have seen good growth of tourists,” said the Managing Director of Drukair, Tandin Jamso. He also said they should be able to tap the western and southern parts of India by having an air route in Mumbai.
The Department of Civil Aviation has completed all the formalities to launch air routes to Mumbai. But the department is yet to sign the Air Service Agreement for Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, Qatar has also expressed an interest to sign the Air Service agreement with Bhutan.
“…The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was asking when this could be possible but we are doing a lot more detailed studies on this,” said the Director General of the Department of Civil Aviation, Wangdi Gyaltshen.