Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) will be operational for 22 hours a day from September 1 (tomorrow).
The sole international airport of the nation will be closed only for 2 hours from 3 AM to 5 AM. The airport has decided to open the domestic terminal from 5 am in the morning.
Raj Kumar Chhetri, GM of TIA stated that in order to manage the flow of passengers after the start of Festival and Tourist Season, the authority has decided to begin domestic service from 5 AM. He said that the domestic flights will begin from 5:30 AM as security checks, tickets, passenger boarding takes a certain time.
At present, the airport opens at 6 o’clock and flights start at 6:30 AM in the morning.
Chhetri said that the new schedule implementation will ease flight operation at mountainous region and also will reduce air traffic congestion at TIA.
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and TIA officials already prepared slot for September – October months for domestic flights operation. According to the schedule, the flights will be conducted till 8 PM to the airports which operate night flights which are Biratnagar airport, Simara, Dhangadi, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj.
The airport officials will issue another slot of internal flights to reduce air traffic and deliver the services effectively to passengers after two months review.
The government added two and a half hours in operation and started its operation for 21 hours daily (6 PM to 3 AM) from May 2018.
According to the plan to operate TIA for 24 hours a day for making suitable to conduct Nepal Tourism Year ,Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) announced that TIA to be in operation for 21 hours daily on April, 2017. Earlier, the airport operated for 18 hours a day (from 6:00 am to midnight). After increasing the operation time of the airport, new airlines did not operate flights during the night as the international airlines received permission to conduct flights at the time.
However, summer schedule will be over in mid-October. The winter schedule will be implemented.
Currently, 39 airlines conduct international flights under the summer schedule. Though Nepal has signed air agreement with 38 nations, international airlines of 15 different countries connect Nepal with rest of the world.
