POKHARA, Oct 4: With the beginning of the tourist season in the country, Yeti Airlines, a private airline company, has started flights in the Kathmandu-Pokhara-Kathmandu sector. Yeti has deployed its new ATR 72-500 aircraft for the sector.
The new aircraft will fly twice daily in the sector, starting from Wednesday. Flights have been scheduled at 7:30 and 9 in the morning.
"Major tourist season has started and aircrafts with extra seats were needed to ease flights for passengers," said Bhim Raj Rai, media manager of Yeti. "It is also good to fly bigger aircraft from the business point of view."
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Till now the company has been operating 30-seated Jetstream 41 aircrafts on this route. However, being a bigger aircraft with 72 seats, it will be difficult to operate ATR 72-500 in full capacity due to the runway structure of Pokhara Airport, Rai said.
Maximum 60 passengers will be carried from Kathmandu to Pokhara, he added.
Pokhara Airport has a short runway of 1,457-meter length. Talking with Republica, Bhola Prashad Guragain, chief of the airport, said that full-fledged operation of ATR 72-500 was not possible due to the short runway.
"Aircraft can carry more passengers during the winter season than summer," he said, adding, "Temperature determines the passenger capacity of the aircraft.”
Another private airline company, Buddha Air, is already operating ATR 72 – 500 in this route.
With the new aircraft, Yeti Airlines now has three ATR 72-500 and six Jetstream 41 aircrafts for domestic flights. For rural areas, its sister organization Tara Air flies two Dornier (DO228) and four twin otter aircrafts. According to Rai, Yeti airlines will add another ATR 72-500 aircraft to its fleet within December.
Currently, Simrik and Nepal Airlines are operating scheduled flights in the Kathmandu–Pokhara sector apart from Buddha and Yeti.
