Pokhara int’l airport to night flights from tomorrow

POKHARA, Feb 22: The Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA) will provide night flights from Thrusday.

Earlier, the airport was providing service only from 6 am to 4 pm, now it is going to provide night service.Bikram Gautam,Chief of  Pokhara Regional International Airport said that the airport is going to operate for 18 hours from tomorrow.

"From tomorrow, the airport will be operational from 6 am to 12 am, all preparations are complete for this," he said.

The international airport came into operation on January 1st. An Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) system has been installed at the airport to allow aircraft to fly and land with the help of instruments. Gautam said that the same system will instruct the night flight aircraft to take off and land.

Earlier, the old airport operated on the basis of the Visual Flight Rules (VFR) system. In that system, the ATC and the pilot would take off and land visually. Gautam said that the IFR system is safer than the VFR system.

With the implementation of the IFR system, it is now possible to operate the aircraft flying and landing in Pokhara even when there is fog. Earlier, the airport itself was sometimes blocked due to wind and fog.

Gautam said that such problems in the IFR system will not affect the aircraft.

Buddha Air has prepared night flights after Pokhara Airport will provide night service.

Buddha Air spokesperson Dipendra Karna said that preparations are being made for Pokhara-Kathmandu and Kathmandu-Pokhara night flights.

"We have planned to fly from Pokhara to Kathmandu at 8 o'clock in the night," he said.

Karna said that Buddha has prepared for Pokhara to Kathmandu night flight from March 9th.

Currently Buddha Air is flying from Pokhara to Kathmandu, Bhairahawa, Chitwan and Nepalgunj. Earlier Buddha also flew from Pokhara to Janakpur.

Now Janakpur flight is stopped. Buddha Air spokesperson Karna said that they are now preparing to fly from Pokhara to Bhadrapur in Jhapa.

"We will fly more flights depending on where the passenger demand is," said Karna, "People who come to Pokhara come to visit, people from Pokhara also have to go to visit.