Fettered Airport

Modnath Dhakal

On May 16, 2022, Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba inaugurated Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) in Bhairahawa, commencing flight operations with Nepal Airlines Corporation and Jazeera Airways. Jazeera had expressed interest in running three weekly commercial flights. Despite initial activity also from Himalaya Airlines, the $76 million (NPR 10 billion) infrastructure, funded by the Asian Development Bank and the OPEC, has remained unused for over a year and a half.

The GBIA, located at the gateway to Lumbini, faces challenges such as air entry routes, the absence of an Instrument Landing System (ILS), and insufficient passenger traffic. While promoting the airport to the Nepali diaspora, Buddhist countries and key tourist markets could address the passenger issue, the former two challenges are economically and technically linked to India. Nepal has faced long-standing denials from its southern neighbour for a new air-entry route that would enhance accessibility for international aircraft to both GBIA and Pokhara International Airport.

While India has gestured positively about providing air entry routes via Biratnagar and Janakpur for high-flying aircraft entering Nepal, it has long been against the entry route in western part of the country. Since Nepal's major tourist and labour markets are in the western part of the world, it desperately needs the air entry route in the west which would immediately activate the GBIA as well. Nepal's bilateral negotiations with India for the past many years have failed to persuade the southern neighbour to open the new route, which it says goes above its military establishments across the border. 

Likewise, a lack of the ILS facility has created difficulties in conducting flight services at the GBIA during the winter when the visibility becomes poor due to hazy weather and fog. Indian reservations over it are based on the ILS signals reaching the Indian territory. Jazeera and Himalaya had suspended their international flight service due to low visibility which could have been resolved if the airport had ILS. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, after his official visit of India in May-June this year was allegedly misguided by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) to announce that Nepal had got the permission to operate the ILS at the GBIA. Later Tourism Ministry clarified that Nepal had not received such permission. 

While confusion still prevails about operating the GBIA, Nepali leaders and bureaucrats are yet to realise that for any airport infrastructure to be completed, only the construction of physical structure or hardware is not sufficient but the software including the entry route and operation of radio waves should be ready. As the airport facility has not achieved full operational status, it cannot be deemed 'completed,' despite the unveiling of stone carvings bearing the names of a few leaders during inauguration ceremonies.

So, until and unless India provides new air entry route through western Nepal and permits the installation of ILS, the GBIA will remain incomplete. The occasional flight operations are being conducted on the partially completed airport. This is the infrastructure that took almost two years to complete the remaining two per cent physical construction works after completing the 98 per cent. The GBIA serves as a glaring example of how government officials and political leaders may 'misguide' or 'cheat' the public. The consequences of this failure are substantial, with a multi-billion rupee cost and the imminent collapse of hundreds of hotels and other tourism businesses. This dire situation stems from the government's inability to bring the GBIA into full operation.