Adverse weather condition has affected flights in Tenzing-Hillary Airprot, Lukla. The adverse weather condition has affected flights from past 4 days at the airport.
The airport remains closed following the presence of heavy fog and light rainfall early morning. Thus, no flights have been operated from last Friday. The airport has been closed since then for safety purpose.
Cancellation of flights has been problematic as couple of hundred passengers have been stranded at Lukla. Some passengers have trekked till Salleri and used roadways to travel to Kathmandu while others are stranded over at the airport.
Passengers have been facing trouble due to lack of alternative route to travel back.
Lukla Airport also known as Tenzing–Hillary Airport rated as the most extreme airport in the world has gained some considerable improvement in its infrastructure and facilities. But the airport gets frequently disturbed due to constantly changing weather phenomena.
CAAN has directed domestic operators to operate flights to lukla from Manthali Airport, Rmaechhap due to ongoing runway rehabilitation process of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) and has also notified to give continuity to the flights even after TIA rehab work completes so as to minimize air traffic.
Currently, Lukla airport is facilitated with FLIGHT RADAR24 which was installed recently with the aim of making flight operation safe, reliable, routine, and pragmatic. Similarly, the authority is working on upgrading the equipment of an airport as Meteorological Information Display. Runway lights have also been installed at the airport.
The airport has been undergoing various up-gradation works for Tourism year 2020. New helipads are being constructed at the airport. CAAN has also planned to expand the capacity of the airport by extending the length of the existing runway and by increasing capacity of the terminal building.
In tourist season, average of 40 flights is being operated whereas nearly 90 helicopter flights operate daily.
Currently, Air Dynasty conducts 6 flights, Prabhu helicopter and Shree conduct 4 flights, Manang Air, Kailash helicopter and Heli Air operate 2 flights and Altitude Air operates 1 flight. Likewise, Sita Air, Tara Air, Summit Air and Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) conduct total 40 flights daily.
