Travel & Tourism

Two domestic carriers successfully completed their maiden test flights at the newly built Pokhara Regional International Airport on Thursday. 

Yeti Airlines and Buddha Air conducted a raft of tests, including take-offs and landings, on Thursday afternoon.

A Yeti Airlines test flight took off from the runway of the old airport at 2:15 pm and made a successful landing at the new runway of the international airport at 2:27 pm, said airlines spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula.

The flight crew assessed the airport’s technical aspects for the flight operation. “The airport is of international standard and the landing went as per the expectation,” Yeti pilot Pramod Raj Gautam noted.

Buddha Air followed suit, starting their testing at 3:06 pm.

Earlier, Aero Thai Company conducted calibration flights to test the operability of the $305 million airport on November 21 to 27. The airport is scheduled to come into operation on January 1, 2023.

The construction of the airport began in April 2016 with a focus on the tourism industry of Pokhara and the nearby areas. It will be Nepal's third international airport after it is commissioned on  New Year’s Day 2023. The airport is expected to handle one million passengers annually.

- With RSS inputs