Tribhuvan International Airport to remain closed for 10 hours daily
Kathmandu, November 8: The Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu will remain closed for 10 hours daily for about five months starting today, November 8.
To increase the capacity of the airport, the Airport will be closed during night hours. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, the capacity expansion work is underway by stopping the landing of flights for the third time for the construction of a parallel taxiway on the southwest side of the airport, the international apron on the north side and the expansion of the apron on the east side of the airport hangar.
The work being done under the Air Transport Capacity Enhancement Project is targeted to be completed within 18 months. According to the project chief Dipendra Shrestha, about 15 billion rupees are being spent to complete the work.
The capacity of the runway will be increased by 25% after the completion of the work by stopping the entire flight landing, according to the Project.
The Project has stated that at present the annual capacity of Tribhuvan International Airport is 80-85 lakh air passengers, after the completion of the project, 10 to 15 lakh can be added and the annual capacity can be up to 1.25 crore.
During the upgrade, all flights from 10 pm to 8 am have been curtailed. Due to the reduction in airport operation time, 35% of domestic and 29% of international flights are being reduced.
At present, 19 local airlines, including 11 helicopter companies, are flying to the domestic side and 30 airlines, including three Nepali, are providing international service. There are 300 domestic flights and 100 international flights daily.
Earlier in 2015, the airport’s runway was blacklisted for about four months by closing the airport for 10 hours a day. Domestic and international flights were reduced by 30%.
Similarly, the runway was extended to the south of the airport (Koteshwor Area Runway Zero Two) in 2017. Along with curtailing of flights, the airfare for international destinations has been hiked by more than double the amount.
This is the peak tourist season and the hike in airfare and cut down in the air service is going to affect the tourist arrival also those Nepalis going abroad for jobs will have to pay expensive airfare.
People’s News Monitoring Service.
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