Kathmandu, 11 Nov: Qatar Airways will take off from Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAN), the airline is going to start daily flights to Bhairahawa from Tuesday.
Gyanendra Bhul, information officer of the authority, said that Qatar Airways is going to start daily flights to Gautam Buddha International Airport. He mentioned that the Bhairahawa flight of Qatar Airways is a symbolic achievement. “Having an international flight from Bhairahwa means that Nepal’s international airport is recognized by the international aeronautical community”, Information Officer Bhul said. It is very important. As an international airport built by us (Nepal) as a ‘gateway’, it is of particular importance as the Gautam Buddha Airport and the surrounding area are also economically viable as world-famous airlines use them as scheduled flights.”
According to Information Officer Bhul, international flights from Gautam Buddha Airport will help in controlling air fares. Air fares are determined based on the price of fuel and competition in the air service agreements that Nepal has with most of the countries. Since domestic and foreign airlines have a competitive best ‘airfare system’ in coordination, domestic airlines are weak and have to depend on the capacity of foreign airlines.
“The government has announced a package of airport concessions. From this, the airlines will also compete for the possibility of taking credit by flying commercial flights from the new airport and it will be strategically important for Qatar Airways, the world’s largest airline and the number one airline in the world, to have international importance,” Information Officer Bhul said. An environment will be created where the international airport will operate at full capacity in the future.”
Qatar will operate two daily flights from Kathmandu and one from Bhairahawa. Qatar Airways has scheduled one daily flight from Bhairahawa until November 30. Before the start of the airport renovation, Qatar was making four daily flights to Kathmandu. With this, the number of airlines operating international flights at Gautam Buddha International Airport, the country’s second international airport, has reached five. After a long time of completion of the construction, international flights are taking place at this airport. Earlier, Nepal Airlines Corporation (Nepal Airlines), Jazeera Air and Fly Dubai are operating international flights at the airport. For the first time, three international flights were operated from Gautam Budh Airport on the 30 of October on the same day. Thai AirAsia started commercial flights from November 3. Similarly, Dubai started flying to Bhairahawa Airport from 09 November. Dubai-Bhairawa and Bhairawa-Kathmandu-Dubai flights are going to be operated by fly Dubai on seven days of the week.
Nepal Airlines is operating flights to Kuala Lumpur and Dubai in Malaysia by making Bhairahawa airport base. Gautam Buddha International Airport was inaugurated on May 16, 2022. According to the government’s action plan to operate two international airports at full capacity, Gautam Buddha Airport is going to operate international flights at full capacity, the airport said.
TIA’s ‘taxi way’ construction is boomingÂ
During the upgradation of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the construction of a taxiway parallel to the runway is going on in full swing. From 10:00 pm to 8:00 am, the airport expansion work is going on. The Authority had started the maintenance and expansion of Kathmandu Airport by stopping flights for 10 hours a day from this November 23rd. The air transport capacity enhancement project under the authority will expand the parallel ‘taxi way’ on the south-west side of the airport, the ‘international apron’ on the north side and the ‘hangar apron’ on the east side of the airport.
