Qatar Airways to operate flights to GBIA from Tuesday
KATHMANDU, Nov 11: As the operating hours of Nepal’s busiest airport Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) have been shortened by six hours due to the expansion of taxiways, airline operators, both international and domestic, have started exploring alternatives to facilitate flights in Nepal.
TIA began undergoing the infrastructure expansion work, halting commercial flights from 10 pm to 8 am starting Friday. Consequently, both domestic and international commercial flights will be reduced until March 31 at the airport which used to close from 2 am to 6 am under normal conditions.
Qatar Airways announced on Monday that it will start operating daily flights from Doha to Bhairahawa starting Tuesday. The airline has become the fifth company to operate flights to Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA). Nepal Airlines, FlyDubai, Jazeera Airlines and Thai AirAsia have already begun flying to and from Bhairahawa.
Yeti plane runway excursion shuts TIA for 8 hours
According to the Officiating Director of GBIA Dipak Kumar Bajracharya, Qatar Airways has received permission to operate one daily flight on the Doha-Bhairahawa-Kathmandu route. “The aircraft arriving from Doha to Bhairahawa at 2:45 pm will depart for Kathmandu at 4:45 pm,” he told Republica. With Qatar Airways operating daily flights, GBIA will observe a record four international flights in a day on Saturday. The Qatari airline operator currently has a permit to operate three daily flights from Kathmandu.
The reduction in operating hours at TIA has affected the domestic flights as the number of flights from the airport to domestic airports have decreased too. Domestic airlines have reduced the number of flights from TIA to Pokhara, as flights from the airport are now prohibited before 8 am.
As an effect of the reduced flights from Kathmandu to domestic airports, Nepali airline operators have added flights from Pokhara to other cities. Buddha, Yeti, and Shree Airlines, which were regularly flying on the Kathmandu-Pokhara route, have cut back on the number of flights.
Buddha Air has reduced its daily flights from 17 to 14 on the Kathmandu-Pokhara-Kathmandu route. Buddha Air’s information officer Dipendra Karna informed Republica that three flights to Pokhara were canceled because morning flights were affected by the shortened operating hours at the TIA.
“As it is only possible to fly from TIA after 8 am, three daily flights to Pokhara have been reduced for now,” he said, “Since flights from Kathmandu are comparatively late, we’ve added flights from Pokhara to other internal routes to make use of the time before that.”
Previously, Buddha Air operated only one daily flight from Pokhara to Bhairahawa, but now there are two — one at 7 am and another at 6 pm. Additionally, the airline operator has started a daily flight each from Pokhara to Nepalgunj and Bharatpur.
Yeti Airlines has also reduced its flights on the Kathmandu-Pokhara route from 10 flights a day to six flights due to the restrictions at TIA. An official from Yeti stated that despite having enough passengers, especially foreign tourists, traveling from Pokhara to Kathmandu, flights were cut back due to the restrictions at TIA. Similarly, Shree Airlines has also reduced its flights on the route from two flights daily to a single.
Tourism entrepreneurs have expressed concern that the reduction in flights, combined with issues on land routes, is impacting the tourism sector in Pokhara. Tourism entrepreneur and former deputy mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City Ganesh Bahadur Bhattarai told Republica that the restriction on the flow of tourists to Pokhara will hamper the tourism-centric businesses of the metropolis.
“As the number of flights has decreased tourists will have to take the alternative of traveling via road to Pokhara,” he said, “However, travel via road has become uncertain due to difficulties on the land routes.” He added that the economy of the tourist city will be affected due to the lower inflow of foreign tourists that tend to land in Kathmandu before heading to Pokhara.
