Three days of flight disruptions at Rara Airport

MUGU, Aug 05:Flights to and from the Rara Airport of Mugu district have been disrupted for three days owing to adverse weather.

According to the Rara Civil Aviation Office, Mugu, flights to and from Rara Airport could not be conducted due to the erratic weather. The Summit Air’s flight taken off from Nepalgunj last Friday was backtracked citing the bad weather after it reached Narakot of Jumla district, only 10 minutes away from the Rara Airport. The weather remained unfavourable yesterday as well.

Although there were some improvements in the weather on Sunday, Summit Air cancelled its flight to Rara Airport, according to Basanta Malla, Summit Air’s Nepalgunj station manager. Consequently, passengers flying from Nepalgunj to Mugu and vice versa have been facing sheer problems.

They complained of running short of money to pay the bills of the hotels while waiting for the flight to their destinations. Namrata Malla, a teacher, shared that teachers who were on annual leave, were hit hard with flight disruption at Rara Airport.

“The condition of road is not good. Air flights are uncertain. We have not been able to return to our duty station,” she bemoaned. Three airlines have been conducting flights at Rara Airport at present.

Among them, Tara Air has not flown to Mugu citing maintenance while Sita Air has not conducted its flight reasoning administrative works. Amid this, it was only Summit Air that had been conducting regular flight to and from Rara Airport. Sita Air’s Mugu station manager Dhirendra Bham assured that Sita Air would conduct flights regularly from coming Monday once the weather cooperates.