Patan Airport in Baitadi left unused for over 1.6 years

KATHMANDU, July 31: Air flights have been suspended for over a year at Patan Airport in Baitadi, a hilly district of Sudurpaschim Province, making the airport and terminal buildings built at a cost of Rs 160 million rupees useless.

Three years ago, the 20-metre wide and 580-metre long airport was paved at a cost of 110 million rupees. while Rs 50 million was spent for the construction of the terminal building.

Dhangadhi-Baitadi-Dhangadhi is a 17 minutes flight. Summit Air had been flying with a fare rate of Rs 4,000 per ticket. However, due to the suspension of air flights, passengers and patients travelling from Baitadi to the provincial capital Dhangadhi are deprived of air services and have been facing several issues.

Residents of Baitadi, who were happy when the airport was completed, have been left disappointed following the suspension of flights which has left infrastructures worth millions of rupees left unused, said Basant Bista, a local resident, adding that the government should step in to resume flights operations from the airport.

The office established here by the Civil Aviation Authority of Neal (CAAN) has also remained  closed following the transfers of employees posted by the authority.

On the other hand, Deputy Chief of Patan Municipality, Kamal Singh Bohra, said that the private airlines had stopped the flight due to lack of passengers. He demanded that the fare should be reduced in order to attract passengers and conduct three flights a week and that the state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation should immediately expand its service.

Patan Airport, which had regular flights from 1979 to 1995, was closed following the maoist movement. After the airport was blacklisted a year and a half ago, even though there was a Baitadi-Dhangadhi flight once a week, air flights have been stopped for the last one and  half years.