Nepal Airlines Donates Rs 9.8 million, Himalaya Raises Rs 1.47 Million After Rasuwa Flood as 3 Nepalese Airlines Offer Aircraft Aid

Nepal’s airlines have stepped forward with cash, free cargo flights, and a helicopter to help the country recover from the Bhote Koshi flood in Rasuwa district. Nepal Airlines Corporation (RA), the flag carrier of Nepal, deducted money from every employee’s salary to hand over more than NPR 9.8 million to the government’s relief fund, according to a press note released by the corporation. Himalaya Airlines (H9), Buddha Air (U4), Yeti Airlines (YT), and Shree Airlines (N9) have each responded in their own way, some with money and some with aircraft.

The flood struck on 26 August 2026, when a surge in the Bhote Koshi and Lhende river system tore through Timure, Rasuwagadhi, and Syabrubesi before rushing downstream along the Trishuli corridor into Nuwakot, Dhading, and Gorkha. Homes, roads, bridges, and hydropower plants were destroyed, and Nepali authorities have reported casualty figures running into the hundreds, with thousands still unaccounted for. The government asked citizens, companies, and institutions to donate to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund, and airlines were among the first industries to answer that call.

Nepal Airlines Deducts Staff Salaries for a Rs 9.8 million Contribution

The flag carrier of Nepal, which employs around 1,400 people, noted that Nepal Airlines Corporation collected NPR 9,835,976.67 by deducting the amount from the salaries of every staff member, then handed the sum to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.

General Manager Janak Raj Kalakheti presented the cheque to Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Khadga Raj Poudel, in the presence of Ministry Secretary Mukunda Prasad Niraula. The gesture makes Nepal Airlines the largest confirmed cash donor among the country’s airlines so far.

Himalaya Airlines Staff Raise Rs 1.47 million and Donate Clothes

Employees of Himalaya Airlines, a Nepal-China joint venture, voluntarily raised NPR 1,470,666 for flood victims. Ten percent of that sum went directly to the family of an H9 staff member who was personally affected by the disaster.

The remaining NPR 1,320,666 was handed to the Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund on September 17, 2026, by Vice President of Administration Vijay Shrestha, who presented the cheque to Minister Poudel. Staff from different departments also collected clothing and donated it to Kathmandu School of Law for onward distribution to affected communities.

Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines Freeze Fares and Fly Relief Cargo for Free

Buddha Air, Nepal’s largest domestic carrier by passenger volume, did not send a cash cheque to the relief fund. Instead, it offered practical help on the ground:

• It agreed to transport relief supplies free of charge, in line with a Ministry of Home Affairs request to speed up the collection and airlift of aid.
• It froze its airfares even as road transport collapsed and demand for flights surged, carrying more than 10,000 passengers a day in the weeks after the flood.
• Yeti Airlines made the same two commitments alongside Buddha Air, keeping fares steady and offering free cargo capacity to disaster-hit areas.

Buddha Air’s executive chairman, Birendra Bahadur Basnet, explained the fare freeze to OnlineKhabar. “We will not increase airfares until the highways are accessible again,” he said.

Shree Airlines Sends a Helicopter into the Disaster Zone

Shree Airlines contributed differently. The Ministry of Home Affairs deployed one of the carrier’s Mi-17 helicopters into the flood-hit area alongside seven Nepal Army aircraft, as officials tried to reach settlements cut off by destroyed roads.

In addition to helicopter rescue, many aviation firms are also providing relief by using drone services in the affected region.

Confusion Over a Reported Rs 10.1 million “Yeti” Donation

Some aggregator sites reported that “Yeti” had donated NPR 10.1 million to the disaster fund, which some readers understandably assumed meant Yeti Airlines. The original Nepali-language source shows the donor was actually Hotel Yak & Yeti, a five-star hotel in Durbar Marg unrelated to the airline.

Hotel director Arun Kumar Sarraf, together with his mother Ratna Devi Sarraf and brother Umesh Sarraf, presented the cheque of NPR 10.11 million to Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle as part of the hotel’s corporate social responsibility programme. No separate cash donation from Yeti Airlines itself has been confirmed at the time of writing.

Airline Contributions Compare Modestly Against Corporate Nepal

Placed next to Nepal’s biggest corporate donors, the airlines’ cash contributions look modest. Gorkha Brewery alone gave Rs 100 million to the relief fund, while Nabil Bank and the Chaudhary Foundation jointly committed a multi-phase relief and rehabilitation programme worth around Rs 150 million, including 500 temporary housing units in Nuwakot and Rasuwa.

Banking and telecom firms such as Nepal Bank, Kumari Bank, Rastriya Banijya Bank, NIC Asia, and Ncell Axiata each gave between Rs 10 million and Rs 30 million within hours of the government’s appeal. Against that backdrop, Nepal Airlines’ salary-funded Rs 9.8 million and Himalaya Airlines’ staff-raised Rs 1.47 million sit well below the top corporate tier.

What airlines could offer instead was capacity that money alone cannot buy quickly: free cargo lifts for relief goods, fare discipline to keep displaced travellers moving, and in Shree Airlines’ case, an actual aircraft flying rescue sorties into a valley that roads could no longer reach.

The Prime Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund had crossed Rs 6.36 billion in total contributions by early September, spread across banks, businesses, and international pledges including a $2 million release from the United Nations emergency fund.