Nepal now owns three International Airports: What does it mean for TIA?

KATHMANDU, Jan. 2: Pokhara International Airport has officially started operating today. Since the construction work was officially started in April 2016, the airport has started operating only after 6 years.
The Civil Aviation Authority signed an agreement with the contractor company China CAMC Engineering in April 2016 to complete the construction work within 5 years. However, due to various reasons including the pandemic of Covid-19, the construction work of the airport was extended by one more year.
The Pokhara Airport, which was completed with the help of loans and grants worth 22 billion rupees from China Exim Bank, has finally been officially put into operation on January 1, 2023 (from today). It has brought forth new enthusiasm not only to Nepal's aviation but also to the tourism sector.

Airtraffic at Tribhuwan International  Airport to decrease by 30 percent
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAN) expects that the air traffic of Tribhuvan Internatiobal Airport will be reduced by 30 percent now that there are two more airports; Gautam Buddha Airport located in Bhairahawa and Pokhara Airport.
Bhairahawa Gautam Buddha Airport has been in regular operation since last Jeth 2. The country's second international airport, proposed as an alternative to Tribhuvan Airport, is spread over 10,500 square meters and a runway with a length of 3,000 meters and a width of 45 meters has been constructed.
Similarly, the total area of Pokhara Airport, which has been operational since today, is 3 thousand 899 square meters and there is a 45-meter-wide runway with a length of 2 thousand 500 meters, in which large aircraft such as narrowbody Airbus 320 and Boeing 757-200 can take off and land. In addition, CAN says that 3 large and 8 small planes can be parked at the same airport.
"Along with Pokhara, we now have three major international airports. It has not only decentralized the facility of air flying but also reduced the load of Tribhuvan Airport", Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson, Jaganath Niraula told Ratopati. "The two international airports are estimated to decrease TIA's load by at least 30 percent," he added.

At present, there are around 90 daily flights from Tribhuvan Airport. The 73-year-old airport is still handling a crowd load of around 35,000 daily both internally and externally. Tribhuvan Airport, which has daily occupancy of 19,000 for domestic flights and 14,000 for international flights, is no longer in a position to handle the additional load.
"An alternative of TIA has been sought due to the increasing crowd load and the unexpandable capacity of the 73-year-old airport. We expect at least 10-10 international flights from Gautam Buddha Airport and Pokhara Airport every day. This reduces the load of Tribhuvan Airport by about 30%. Not only this, it is believed that with the opening of Gautam Buddha Airport and Pokhara Airport, foreign employment, international relations, tourism, and regional facilities will be further strengthened," he said.
However, Gautam Buddha Airport has not been able to get business as expected even after 7 months of operation due to various legal obstacles.
Apart from the state-owned airline Nepal Airlines, other aircraft are not able to provide regular flight services from Bhairahawa. Although Sri Lankan Air, Salam Air, Thai Smile Air, Qatar Air, Fly Dubai, Gulf Air, Go Air and others have shown their interest, currently, apart from one domestic company, Himalaya Airlines, and another foreign company, Air Jajira, none have made flights. And recently, due to technical reasons, none of the planes have made international flights.
Himal Airlines was flying from Gautam Buddha Airport to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Air Jazeera was flying to Kuwait. Even though Himalaya Airlines had a one-way flight, it could not be regular. Another Air Jazeera, which had about 100 flights, has been stopped recently due to bad weather, Gobind Dahal, director general of Gautam Buddha Airport, told Ratopati, "Now there is no possibility of opening the flight before January 15."
However, he informed that 8-10 charter flights are taking place every now and then.

International flights from Pokhara only from March
International flights from Pokhara are said to operate only from the coming March. Even though the airport has already been inaugurated on January 1, as various technical and operational works are still pending, regular international flights will take place only after 3 months at least, CAN spokesperson Niraula informed Ratopati.
However, he said that domestic flights will be operated from the same airport from today.
"Although it will take some time for international flights, domestic flights from this airport will start today," Niraula said. However, the Pokhara-Jomsom flight will be operating from the old airport, he said.
Niraula said that Buddha Air and Himalaya Airlines have shown interest in international flights. He said that along with these two companies, the authority is preparing to allow other international airlines that want to operate international flights from Pokhara, considering the needs and justifications of eligible companies.