Himal Press 
ATR-72 aircraft of Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines on the tarmac of Pokhara International Airport. (File Photo)
POKHARA: Two leading domestic carriers Thursday operated demonstration flights at the newly built Pokhara International Airport which is preparing to start commercial operation on January 1.
Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines operated 70-seater ATR-72 aircraft for the demonstration flights. Both aircraft took off from the existing airport and landed at the international airport on Thursday afternoon.
Bikram Gautam, chief of the Civil Aviation Office, Pokhara, said the airport is now ready for commercial operations. “Initially, flights will be operated during daytime only. Our plan is to operate it for 18 hours a day,” he added. “We will shift all flights – except those operated by STOL aircraft, helicopter and ultralight aircraft – to the international airport from January 1.”
Aircraft landed at the airport from both ends of the runway on Thursday.
The airport was built using a $215 million loan from the China EXIM Bank and is capable of accommodating medium-sized jets such as the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 757.
Pramod Poudel, the instructor pilot of Yeti Airlines, said he found the airport excellent for flight operation. Similarly, Buddha Air’s information officer Dipendra Adhikari said the demonstration flight was organized to make the crew used to the new airport.
Buddha Air has already announced that it would operate international flights from Pokhara. “We will operate flights to the Indian city of Varanasi from Pokhara. Flight frequency may be low initially, but our plan is to operate daily flights,” Rupesh Joshi, marketing manager of Buddha Air, said.
The foundation stone for the project was laid by former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in 2016, 46 years after land acquisition for the airport began. The original completion date for the airport was July 2021, but this was delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project was contracted to China CAMC Engineering in 2014, and the completed airport was handed over to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) by the Chinese company in March, 2021 during a visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
The airport was built using a $215 million loan from the China EXIM Bank and is capable of accommodating medium-sized jets such as the Airbus A320 and the Boeing 757.
