Travel & Tourism

Foggy weather in Kathmandu valley and most of Tarai has disrupted Nepal's flight schedule since early Thursday morning.

As airport authorities waited for the weather to clear, air traffic over Nepal remained chaotic. By noon, the sky had cleared enough for flights to take off and land at Tribhuvan International Airport. 

According to Flight Radar 24, a global flight tracking service, two international flights - Sri Lankan Airlines, Vistara and Thai Smile - have landed since.

However, the Flight Radar 24 site shows congested air traffic over Kathmandu in the wake of poor visibility in the morning.  

TIA General Manager Premnath Thakur said, “Although some flights landed this morning, the fog took over the runway later. This has caused multiple flights to hold in the sky. One of them had to be diverted.”

According to TIA officials, Air India flight 213 was diverted to Varanasi after it failed to land, while Nepal Airlines flight 416 and two mountain flights of Buddha Air made missed approaches. 

“The flights, including the diverted Air India, have all landed safely,” Thakur confirmed. 

“The airport is functioning normally now, but there are already too many planes over the Nepali sky. It will take some time to clear the air traffic,” he said, hinting at possible delays in Thursday’s flight schedule. 

According to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM), there is little to no probability of rain on Thursday and Friday.

In its forecast for the next three days, the weather office writes: “Nepal is experiencing the effects of western low pressure.”

While the weather will likely be clear for Friday, some parts of Province 1, Karnali Province and Gandaki Province can expect slight rains on the weekend, the DHM predicted.