BUDGET : Flying to remote areas Qin YuBao, managing director, Flying-Dragon Airlines Flying-Dragon airlines (FDA) has been delivering its services to people in mid-west region since September 2005. Being an operator with its focus on Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) airfields, the airlines has obligations to be fulfilled with reference to compliance of Flight Operations Requirement (FOR). It has been really hard to sustain operations as both FDA aircrafts were stationed at Nepalgunj throughout the year. It seems that there is no proportional increment in the airfare (both for passenger and cargo) to the increment in fuel and other administrative charges. This will affect airlines’ health on the long run. There is also an acute shortage of technical manpower basically for the STOL operators. In the mean time, small operators are coerced to go through various complexities and different hustles in the name of fulfillment of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) requirement. There should not be any compromise on safety but it is also true that there needs to be revision of various rules and regulations, government procedures. There has not been any execution of Remote Sector Service Fund (RSSF), which was proposed a few years ago to replace the policy of 40 per cent hub-to-remote-sector flight operation. Under Remote Sector Service Fund, domestic airlines are to collect and allocate $2 per dollar fare coupon on a sector flight and $4 on an Everest sight seeing flight. The collected funds then would be paid to airlines operating passenger flights on 13 specified hub-to-remote-sector routes. It is expected that our regulatory institutions and government departments would give proper attention to these issues in the era of ‘open air policy’.