Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) Twin Otter ‘9N-ABU’ initiated flight operation at Jomsom Airport from yesterday. As been reported, Satyam Tours & Travels, a private company has leased NAC’s Twin Otter for a period of 3 months to conduct schedule flights at Jomsom Airport.
NAC was unable to conduct schedule and charter flight at at the airport for past 2 years. But now, the corporation has lent its one Twin Otter to the Satyam Tours & Travels who has to conduct at least 60 flights a month as per the agreement between two parties.
The test flight was conducted with NAC’s Twin Otter DHC-6-300 ‘9N-ABU’ at morning hour. Two flights were conducted from Pokhara to Jomsom yesterday. As per the information, Satyam Tours and Travles will operate 2 to 3 daily flights to the airport as the number of air passengers at Mustang have been increasing with end of the winter season.
The flight operation from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom has been started with one way airfare of Nrs. 3020 for Nepalese, Nrs. 8455 for Indians and $125 for foreigner.
Photo: Nepal Airlines’ Twin Otter ‘9N-ABU’ boarding passengers at Jomsom Airport while Tara Air’s Twin Otter ‘9N-AKL’ prepares for takeoff
Before NAC, only Tara Air was conducting flights to the Jomsom Airport and in the winter season the flight got reduced to hardly one per day. But now Tara Air conducts up to five flights a day after the Himalaya region is welcoming increasing number of tourists especially from India.
As per the information, tourists usually book two way ticket for Jomsom due to which the locals and domestic tourists have been facing difficulty in getting tickets. Mostly, the domestic tourists and locals use or prefer road infrastructure for travelling but now, ticket distribution could be adequate after the initiation from the flag carrier.
Due to the geographical structure and unfavorable weather phenomena, Jomsom airport is frequently hit by disturbance in flight operation. In January 2018, the wind speed of 70 knots was measured at the airport whereas three years ago, it was 101 knots which was the strongest wind speed ever recorded at the region.
