Air Travel for Guides/Porters

Of course you wouldn't have to pay for air travel, as you can take a bus from KTM to Pokhara. Make sure you know what your financial commitments are, before you make arrangements with an agency...

zauberberg, I don't think you quite got what I was asking. If, say, you took a guide or porter to Lukla or Jomsom, then they'd have to fly with you, wouldn't they?

I will try and answer your question
If you chose to take a guide with you then of course you would have to pay for their flight and yes, Nepali Nationals get their airfares at a fraction (Less than half price) of what foreigners have to pay.
However there is another alternative and that is to arrange your guide to meet you at your chosen start point - i.e. if you chose to start your trek in Jomsom then asked a guide to meet you there then they might choose to walk in and meet your there, you would then have to pay them their fee and reasonable expenses whilst they do this, it isn't normally worth while for only one guide but if you are putting an expedition together - you might be wanting to cross over Tilicho for instance, then it is worthwhile for the Guide Group to walk in.
I hope that helps
Happy Trekking
Rob
PS -- I have written up some travel pages on Nepal with my own personal experiences and recommendations at
Nepal
IF you want to take a look

Although you can always arrange things in another way, i would say that it is customary that you take the same transport as your guide(s) and porter(s)
One obvious alternative is to contract people locally -easy for porters-, with possibly a guide doing the trip with you from town.

On my EBC trek I had to pay the airfare (halfprice) for my guide and porter from KTM-Lukla.

For the Mustang trek this year our guide flew to Jomsom with us. The rest of the crew walked in (3 days ahead of us). Everyone took the bus to Pokhara.