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International flights stopped at the international airport built with foreign loans

International flights are suspended at Pokhara and Gautam Budh International Airports, built by the government with foreign loans.

Gautam Budh International Airport in Bhairahawa, which was put into operation 9 months ago, has not had any international flights since 5th of January.

After Kuwait’s Jazeera Airlines stopped flying, international flights have not been able to operate at this airport.

Himalaya Airlines started charter flights from November 17, but it also stopped charter flights from Bhairahawa if it could not start regular flights.

International flights have been affected because India did not agree to install Instrument Landing System (ILS) at this airport.

There is a problem that the weather becomes bad due to storms during the winter and in the absence of this technology, the ship cannot land in low visibility. Due to the absence of the ILS radio navigation system, which can land the ship in a visibility of 800 meters, the ship cannot land at night and in bad weather. Due to lack of this technology, foreign airlines have not been able to fly and land at Gautam Buddha Airport even if they wanted to.

According to Govinda Prasad Dahal, General Manager of Gautam Buddha International Airport, Jazeera canceled the flight due to technical reasons. He has again asked for permission to fly 4 times a week from the end of January. He said, “Hungarian Airlines wants to fly from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). As these two airlines are preparing to come, regular flights will start again from Bhairahawa soon.

According to him, the ILS system has already been installed, but as Indian land is used when the ship flies, India’s permission is required. Dahal argues that even if the permission is not given, there will be no problem in flying from this airport as the winter is getting shorter. The problems related to visa center, health examination and orientation training are also being solved at this airport. Dahal also said that now that the labor office has been opened, flights from this airport will be more convenient.

Pokhara International Airport, which was officially opened on 17th December, is also limited to domestic flights. The structure of international flights is ready at this airport. As in Bhairahawa, the structure of passenger departure/arrival from checking of domestic and international flights is ready. From personnel, security agencies, all departments at the airport are ready. However, international flights from both are zero.

On the same day Pokhara was inaugurated, Buddha Airlines proposed to start flights to India’s Vanaras. However, due to the fact that India has not given its permission, international flights have not been possible so far. No international airlines have shown interest in this airport yet.

Within 15 days of the opening of the new international airport in Pokhara, 1 Yeti Airlines plane crash has become a curse for Nepali aviation and this airport itself. After the plane crash of Yeti Airlines, flights at Pokhara airport have decreased by 50 percent.

The head of Pokhara International Airport, Vikramraj Gaut, said that during the winter season, flights are relatively less. According to him, flights of Yeti Air have decreased somewhat after the plane crash. He claimed that preparations are being made for international flights from this airport and it will resume soon.

Difficulty meeting operating expenses, employee turnover

As there were only domestic flights from both Pokhara and Bhairahawa airports, 36/36 permanent staff worked. After the expansion of the airport’s capacity and its internationalization, 141 employees have reached Bhairahawa, and the authority is preparing for the approval of posts to increase to 165. The posts of 165 employees have been approved in Pokhara as well.

The Aviation Authority has informed that the said number of employees is required to operate both airports 24 hours a day. Apart from permanent posts, there were 23 outsourced employees in Pokhara only internally. Now there are 40 people. Bhairahawa also has about 70 outsourcing employees.

There are currently 1122 employees under the authority. The authority spends 1 billion 600 million rupees annually for employees. The authority has informed that the contract employees coming from outsourcing are spending an average of 25 to 26 thousand rupees per person per month.

According to the authority, more than 200 employees are free at both international airports. Operating expenses have increased as the airport has to be in a state of readiness, service providers other than the authority also have to be in a state of readiness. Officials of the Authority say that such expenses are naturally higher when the airport is international than when it is operated only domestically. According to the authority, the electricity bill at Pokhara Airport for the last one year alone has reached around 4 million. Such a bill would have reached a total of 2 to 2.5 lakh rupees if it was only for the domestic airport. An official of the authority said that this data will also show how the operating expenses of the airport will increase.

The authority’s debt has reached 32 billion, it is uncertain whether the project will earn from the loan

The authority’s debt so far has reached 32 billion rupees. Most of the loans taken by the authority are for Pokhara Airport. The loan taken for this airport is around 22 billion. With the added debt in the current year, the liability of the authority has increased by 4 billion rupees compared to last year. By the last fiscal year 2078/79, the authority’s debt was 28 billion 55 million rupees.

17 billion 25 of Pokhara Airport in this loan

Crores, 4.35 billions of Gautam Buddha Airport and 7 billions of loans taken under the Tribhuvan Airport improvement project, the authority has informed.

Although the debt load of the authority is increasing, the pressure on the authority is increasing as the earnings of the loan projects are uncertain. The authority has to pay more than Rs. 40 million per month for the Bhairahawa airport alone.

The Authority has paid the installment of Bhairahawa Airport only in the middle of November 4039 lakhs. For Bhairahawa, Pradhirkan has to pay the interest on the loan twice a year for 24 years.

Such installment is to be paid every October and Baisakh 1 lakh 12 thousand 709 dollars. The authority has already started paying installments of the loan for this airport since 2075.

For Pokhara Airport, the authority should start paying installments from next March. The authority should pay an amount of 53 million 28 thousand 461 in Chinese currency for each installment for Pokhara Airport.

Nepal Civil Aviation Authority spokesperson Jagannath Niraula says that all airports should be viewed according to the principle of necessity rather than saying that they should make a profit.

There are now 54 airports in Nepal. He argued that there is no guarantee that all airports will earn money, and they should continue to provide services to both profit-making and non-profit-making ones.

He claims that since the loan taken by the authority is only 32 billion rupees, it can be paid by earning. He says that it is not necessary to re-evaluate for the same reason.

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