"We had to close the airport for 49 minutes for maintenance on Monday as there were two potholes in the touchdown area of the runway in the southern part of the airport," TIA Acting General Manager Birendra Shrestha.
According to Shrestha, TIA was closed from 1:19 pm to 2:08 pm on Sunday.The airport had issued Notices to Airmen (NOTAMS) for the period. But choppers were allowed to take off and land.
High pressure of aircraft after the earthquake on April 25 had created problem in the runway. According to TIA official, the problem was recurring since April 25 and NOTAMS were issued, urging pilots not to use full length of the runway 02 due to threshold problem.
Some international flights coming to Nepal were diverted to Lucknow, India. They, however, landed at TIA later on.
TIA had banned aircraft weighing 196 tons or more on May 1 after potholes were seen on the runway. The airport operated round the clock for 10 days after the earthquake of April 25.
TIA handled altogether 5,170 flights in the two-week period after the earthquake. Of them, 1,831 were rescue flights, 1,825 were domestic flights and 1,514 international scheduled and chartered flights.
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