KATHMANDU: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) begins regular flights on Tuesday, one year after Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) opened.
NAC will fly on a once-weekly basis on the Kathmandu-Malaysia-Bhairahawa-Kathmandu route, according to GBIA chief Hansraj Pandey.
On Tuesday at 7:30 AM, a narrow body aircraft from the NAC touched down at the airport. The company, which initially only planned flights for one day of the week, is planning to increase the number of flights in response to passenger demand, according to Pandey.
Currently, NAC operates a total of four large aircraft—two narrow body and two wide body—regularly to a variety of international destinations, including Delhi, Doha, Bangalore, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Mumbai, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and other international destinations.
After Jazeera Airlines, there are now two airlines operating international flights at Bhairahawa thanks to the corporation’s commercial flights.
The market studies for regular flights at this airport have also begun in Cambodia and Myanmar, according to Airport Chief Pandey. Both Buddhist nations, according to him, have begun making plans for commercial flights that will stop in Lumbini.