If you’re planning a trip to Kathmandu from Amsterdam, London, New York or anywhere else in Europe or North America, you’ve probably noticed there’s no direct flight yet — you connect through Delhi, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur. That’s been the case since 2013, when Nepal-registered airlines were placed on the EU Air Safety List. The good news: 2026 has brought the most concrete reform momentum in over a decade, with new legislation now in front of parliament and a firm government deadline for the change that matters most. Here’s what’s behind the current routing, and why the path to direct flights is looking more real than it has in years.

What is the EU Air Safety List?

The European Commission maintains a public list of airlines that are banned or restricted from flying into the 27-member EU bloc, based on safety oversight assessments. In December 2013, following concerns raised by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) about weaknesses in Nepal’s aviation safety oversight system, all airlines certified by Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN) were added to this list. That means no Nepal-registered carrier — Nepal Airlines, Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines, Shree Airlines, or any other — is legally allowed to operate flights into EU airspace.

It’s important to understand what the ban does not mean. It has never applied to European or American carriers flying into Nepal, and it says nothing about whether it’s safe to fly Nepal Airlines, Buddha Air or Yeti Airlines domestically, for example on a mountain flight or between Kathmandu and Pokhara. It’s a bureaucratic classification about a regulatory system, not a verdict on individual flights or aircraft you might take as a tourist inside the country.

Why has it lasted 13 years?

The short answer: institutional reform, not weather or accident rates, is the real bottleneck.

ICAO’s own comprehensive audit found real safety concerns in 2013, but by 2017 ICAO had already removed Nepal from its own list of “significant safety concerns,” citing measurable improvement in the country’s oversight scores. The EU, however, kept Nepal on its separate list — and has kept it there through every biannual update since, most recently in the Commission’s 48th update in June 2026.

The EU’s core, consistently repeated demand is structural: CAAN currently acts as both the safety regulator and the operator of Nepal’s airports and air navigation services. In effect, the same institution that runs Nepal’s airspace also inspects and certifies itself — a conflict of interest that the EU (and aviation governance experts generally) considers incompatible with independent safety oversight. The fix everyone agrees on, at least on paper, is splitting CAAN into two separate bodies: one purely regulatory, one purely operational.

The problem is that Nepal has been trying — and failing — to pass this split into law for around 15 years, across roughly fifteen different tourism/aviation ministers. Draft bills have been written, revised, and left to lapse in parliament more than once.

The reform push in 2026: the most real progress in over a decade

Here’s what’s actually moving right now:

• Two draft bills are finally in front of the public and parliament. The government has published separate draft laws — the Air Service Authority of Nepal bill and a reformed Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal bill — that would formally split CAAN’s regulatory and operational functions into two independent bodies. As of August 2026, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Khadak Raj Paudel confirmed in parliament that the ministry is finalizing these bills after a public comment period and intends to table them in the House of Representatives soon.
• A firm(ish) deadline has been set. Finance Minister Swarnim Wagle pledged in this year’s budget speech to complete the CAAN split by mid-January 2027.
• Joint EU–Nepal technical cooperation is active on the ground. CAAN and European aircraft manufacturer ATR have been running a joint Regional Aviation Safety Programme in Kathmandu, covering crew training, fatigue management and operational resilience — with the EU Delegation’s chargé d’affaires publicly acknowledging Nepal’s recent reform efforts.
• A major ICAO reassessment is scheduled for 2027. ICAO last conducted a full audit in 2022 and found deficiencies; a follow-up team is due to return to check progress against CAAN’s corrective action plan, and this audit is expected to weigh heavily on the EU’s next decision.

What could still slow things down

Worth knowing, so expectations stay realistic:

• The EU has been vague about its own checklist. Nepali officials have publicly noted that EU assessment visits often function more as informal observations than clearly documented audits, which makes it hard for Nepal to know exactly what “enough” looks like.
• Splitting CAAN alone may not be sufficient. Industry observers argue that beyond the legal restructuring, Nepal will also need sustained high-level diplomatic engagement with the European Commission and continued, demonstrable compliance with ICAO standards — this is as much a political process as a technical one.
• Past deadlines have slipped before. Similar commitments have been made and missed multiple times over the last decade, so the mid-January 2027 target should be read as an intention, not a certainty.
• Even a best-case timeline runs into 2027–2028. With the CAAN split needing to pass, take effect, then be validated by both ICAO and the EU, a realistic path to removal — if everything goes right — is unlikely to land before late 2027 at the earliest.

What this means for you as a traveler right now

• You will connect, and that’s fine. Practically every international visitor to Nepal already flies via a hub like Delhi, Doha, Abu Dhabi, Istanbul, Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur on a well-known international carrier for the long-haul leg, then takes a short regional flight or connects onward into Kathmandu. This has been the norm for over a decade and doesn’t meaningfully affect trip planning.
• The EU list does not tell you anything about your domestic flight or mountain flight safety. Decisions about internal flights, trekking peak flights, or scenic mountain flights should be based on the operator’s own safety record and current advisories, not this EU classification.
• Watch this space, but don’t wait for it. If the reforms hold and the 2027 ICAO audit goes well, direct EU–Nepal flights could realistically become possible in the following one to two years. Until then, connecting flights remain the only way in — and they work perfectly well.

Have questions about getting to Kathmandu, choosing the best route from Europe or North America, or what to expect once you land? Amazing Kathmandu Tours can help you plan the rest of the journey once you’re on the ground.