International airlines companies have repeatedly denied operating night flights though Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) which has been operating 21 hours a day extending the operation time in a purpose to accommodate more flights and lessen the traffic congestion.
TIA has extended operation hours from 18 hours to 21 hours from May 21, 2018. Qatar Airways is the only international airline which has been operating night flight at 1 AM.
According to the new schedule, a flight of Qatar Airways lands at 1 AM in TIA and takes off at 2 AM. However, the remaining 28 international airlines have refused to change their present flight schedule.
TIA had requested all the airlines companies operating in the airport to change their flight schedule but except Qatar Airways, no other airlines have shown interest in operating flights at night by changing their prevalent schedule.
The wise attempt of Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) increase the operational hours of TIA , has not been able to show the effectiveness as the traffic congestion still persists.
Mr. Raj Kumar Chhetri, General Manager of TIA stated that TIA will be in operation for 24 hours a day after completing the renovation of the runway. Chhetri claimed that the airlines companies might have stepped back to operate night flight as TIA is supposed to remain close for 10 hours a day for rehabilitation work of the runway very soon.
TIA has been operating in three shifts even though it is operating for 21hours a day. The third staff has been working for extra 3 hours.
Currently, TIA extension hours are only beneficial for the airlines which delay its flights. No further achievements could be seen until the airline operators revise their time schedule to accommodate late night hours operation of TIA.
