Prospect of flights from PIA to other cities discussed

By Our Correspondent 

Kaski, May 11:  Stakeholders have discussed the possibility of operating direct domestic flights from Pokhara International Airport (PIA) to various cities across the country. 

Initiated by the Pokhara Metropolitan City, the meeting included Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Badri Prasad Pandey, Mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, Dhan Raj Acharya, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), Pradeep Adhikari, and representatives from private domestic airlines.

Minister Pandey urged air service providers to operate regular flights from the well-equipped PIA to potential domestic destinations. Stating the government’s readiness to offer necessary policy-level support, he emphasised the need to reduce pressure on the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu and decentralise services as much as possible. 

Minister Pandey also expressed confidence that launching flights from Pokhara to new destinations would help boost tourism-related activities.

Likewise, Mayor Acharya stressed that Pokhara is fully prepared and called upon private airlines to initiate flight services to all seven provinces that have operational airports. He assured that the city is ready to facilitate necessary arrangements to ensure that any corner of the country could be reached by air travel from Pokhara. 

Acharya highlighted that linking Pokhara with the rest of the country through air travel would help resolve development imbalances across various sectors, including tourism. On the occasion, Mayor Acharya also urged Minister Pandey and CAAN officials to guarantee that the old Pokhara Airport will remain operational in its current form.

CAAN’s DG Adhikari said recent discussions on PIA have been speculative and misleading. He criticised efforts to spread misinformation for cheap popularity without understanding the truth, especially in the name of inquiry committee reports. 

He affirmed the airport’s capability to provide services at full capacity and committed to making special efforts to manage services from Pokhara to feasible destinations throughout the country.

Similarly, key industry representatives, including Buddha Air's Operations Director Subarna Kharel, Yeti Airlines’ Chairman Sonam Sherpa, Shree Airlines’ Chairman Sudhir Mittal, and Summit Air’s Manoj Karki, expressed their readiness to offer services to and from the PIA. They committed to studying the viability of sustainable operations and providing services to selected destinations in addition to regular routes.