Various Office heads and other officials of Ramechhap district have demanded for Kathmandu-Ramechhap flight. Various officers meeting headed by chief district officer demanded for direct flight on the sector.
The airport has been equipped with Terminal equipment, ATC, Oil storage depot etc and the officials have demanded for minimum of 1 weekly flight.
The airport was previously shut down by Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) for the purpose of black topping the runway and had been operating partially in various phase of time.
The airport has been operating flights to Lukla Airport in Solukhumbu, mostly for cargo but has not been operating in Kathmandu-Ramechhap sector.
Various Domestic airlines had vowed to operate on the sector however, no airlines has made flights till date.
Summit Air, Sita Air, and Tara Air had presented their flight schedules to CAA Nepal mentioning one weekly flight from Kathmandu to Ramechhap but yet the airport has not witnessed any landing till date except the diverted flights of Kathmandu- Lukla sector occasionally landing as an alternate aerodrome.
Summit Airline had also scheduled a flight from Ramechhap to Tenzing–Hillary Airport in Solukhumbu District.
Before, Ramechhap Airport used to see about 10 flights per day for cargo operations. Air Kasthamandap, Goma Air (Presently Summit Air) with Tara Air used to conduct chartered cargo flights in this region.
Private airline carrier ‘Tara Air’ conducted a successful test flight at Ramechhap Airport on August 15, 2016, and had scheduled a flight every week at the airport but with the maintenance of the airport going on back then, the flights had to be cancelled.
The maintenance of the airport was completed on 2017 but the airport at Manthali has yet remained out of operation since then. The airport has blacktopped the runway with the modern terminal and other infrastructure. The airport also features facility of refueling of aircraft with the aviation fuel available from Nepal Oil Corporation.
According to Locals, lack of sufficient air travelers from Ramechhap has caused the Manthali airport to have no any flight operation from Kathmandu to Ramechhap in the past three years.
Currently, locals from Ramechhap are compelled to travel to the capital city by road due to the closed airport. In general, it only takes about four hours to Kathmandu via B.P highway.
The domestic airline operators have been instructed by Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) authority to conduct morning Lukla flights from Manthali Airport, Ramechhap during TIA runway rehabilitation works starting 1st April.
The aviation regulatory body Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has already informed the shutdown TIA operation for 3 months (10 pm to 8 am) starting from 1st April.
The airport is situated on the bank of Tama Koshi River in Manthali, headquarters of Ramechaap District and is the closest airport of the eastern region to connect Kathmandu at an elevation of 493 m. /1617 ft. above mean sea level. The airport has Bituminous Paved (Asphalt Concrete) runway with its dimension of 520 x 20 meters aligned to 030 degrees and 210 degrees. The airport can accommodate three small aircrafts like DHC6 Twin Otter, Harbin Y12, Dornier DO228, LET L410 and Cessna Grand Caravan C208 at the time.
