Qatar Airways has added new daily flight service to its current 4 flights daily for Kathmandu-Doha sector after the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) extended its service to 21 hours. The airline had scheduled to take off at 2:10 AM today for Doha, however, it couldn’t operate its flight due to NOTAM issued at TIA following the Yeti Airlines Jetstream 41 runway excursion.
The airline has stated that it will initially have test flight till October 27 and General Manager of TIA Rajkumar Chhetri also added that if the flight operates successfully, Qatar airways will be given the slot and also spoke about Fly Dubai and Wataniya airways preparing to operate at night between 12-3 AM.
Upon the commitment by Tourism Minister (MoCTCA) Rabindra Adhikari, TIA extended its service to 21 hours from 18 hours daily from May 20. Chhetri added that TIA has been improving in management and infrastructure and its result will take some time and also said that it will make easy for Nepali international carriers to operate at night after Qatar successfully operates.
TIA has also started to operate its domestic service from 5 AM in the morning as TIA now is operational for 22 hours. This initiative has been taken to reduce air traffic during the upcoming festive and tourism season. MoCTCA has also planned to operate TIA round the clock and work is being carried out said Mr. Chhetri.
During festive season or from September to November, there is a huge flow of passengers and private domestic carriers also run additional flights thus TIA has opened domestic terminal an hour early at 5 in the morning and the flights will be operated by 6 AM stated Chhetri.
