Alive News

Air service at Jufal airport in Dolpa district, which was closed for the past four days due to bad weather, has resumed from Wednesday.

Following the service resumption, four airlines including Summit, Tara, Sita and Nepal made flights from the airport today, said Jufal-based office of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

The pressure of air passengers is increasing day by day as air service is the only means of transport for the mountainous district deprived of road network, said a Tara Air employee Debendra Shahi.

Air service to the mountainous districts of Karnali from Nepalgunj has closed due to the incessant heavy rains.

The flights to the various districts of the Karnali region from Nepalgunj have been affected due to the rain since Sunday evening. All flights remained halted on Monday, said Krishna Gautam, information officer at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), Nepalgunj office.

Various airlines operate daily flights to Jumla, Humla, Dolpa and Mugu from Nepalgunj. More than 500 Indian pilgrims who had booked flights to Humla have been stranded as the flights have been cancelled. They first fly to Humla and then to the holy Kailash Manasarovar in Tibet.

Flights to and from Kathmandu are however operating on regular basis, it is stated.

The sole airport in Dang, Tarigaon, again suffered a closure.

On January 13, Tulsipur Sub-metropolitan City had reached an agreement with Summit Air to operate flights from the airport. As per the agreement, one-way airfare for Dang-Kathmandu was Rs 7,200 per person.

However, the Sub-Metropolis left coordination after the Air increased airfare by 2,680 one-way per ticket citing increment in fuel prices, causing flight discontinuation.

While the Air was agreed upon operating flights twice a week (Sunday and Wednesday), the flight operation was reduced to only once a week (Sunday) lately.

The Air could not operate flights on May 27 and June 3 for want of passengers.

“On last Sunday, nine passengers had booked tickets for Kathmandu. But the booking was cancelled after the Air told that it could not operate a flight at an old fare rate,” said information officer at the Sub-Metropolis Jharendra Kharel.

The Air cancelled flights three times in the past six months, he said.

Irregular flights and expensive fare are some factors to overcome to continue flights.

Mayor of the Sub-Metropolis Ghana Shyam Pandey said that the airline would be requested to reconsider the flight closure, saying the flight closure is against the agreement.

“The airfare was increased without informing us. We are coordinating with the airline to negotiate for the old fare rate,” he said.

Established in 2011 B.S., and formally came into operation in 2016 B.S., the airport has seen a repeated closure since so far.

Earlier before the local level elections, the Tulsipur Chamber of Commerce and Industry had operated flights from the airport in coordination with a private airplane company only to be halted due to various reasons.