Pokhara International Airport (PIA) has resumed the flight operations from Wednesday. From last one week flights in PIA were affected due to nationwide fog causing reduced visibility, but flights have resumed since yesterday afternoon.
The Pokhara Airport requires a minimum visibility of 1,700 meters under the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and a visibility of five kilometers under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). When flights can’t be operated in VFR, the flights have to be conducted in IFR. However, because the airports visibility was reduced below 1,700 metres, even the IFR flights could not be operated.
According to Deependra Karn, Information Officer at Buddha Air, flights had been affected since April 25. Buddha Air’s regular flights have resumed since Thursday morning after a week.
The company has operated 17 flights between Kathmandu and Pokhara and also flights to Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, and Bharatpur directly from Pokhara after one week of flight halt.
The wild fire spread in a lot of places of Nepal is the main reason to reduce the visibility nation wide presently. Due to the same reason flights have been effected in few airports of the country since many days.