Druk Air

Druk Air

Druk Air Corporation Limited (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་མཁའ་འགྲུལ་ལས་འཛིན།, Wylie: 'brug mkha' 'grul las 'dzin), operating as Drukair — Royal Bhutan Airlines, is the national airline of the Kingdom of Bhutan. Its headquarters are in the western dzongkhag of Paro.

Founded in 1981, ten years after Druk Gyalpo Jigme Dorji Wangchuck gradually began to open up the kingdom from self-imposed isolation, and seven years after welcoming its first foreign visitors, the airline commenced operations in 1983 with flights from Calcutta to Paro utilising Dornier Do 228 aircraft. A switch to BAe 146-100 equipment occurred in November 1988, and in order to meet increased demand, those aircraft were replaced in 2004 with two Airbus A319s.

Druk Air operates a modest scheduled flight network within the South Asian region from its base at Paro Airport and currently consists of eight destinations in five countries.

Bhutan has drawn a Vision 2020 Plan, as part of its Five Year Development Plans targeting several sectors for development, which includes improved external air links by 2017 that would enable increase in income from tourism from 100% (by 2012) to 150% (2017) coupled with completion of second National Highway by 2017. It has also signed several memoranda of understanding with the government of India, not only to enhance airtraffic facilities and operations but also to help Bhutan during emergency situations of floods and earthquake affecting the Paro Airport.