In the past year, most domestic flights were affected by cold weather, causing delays of up to 2 weeks. Canceling flights was the only option due to low visibility. But this year, there weren’t any problems with flights to popular destinations. Airlines informed that flights were not affected much by weather conditions this time. Companies like Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines, and Shree Airlines reported that flights were not affected by adverse weather conditions like in the past.
Rupesh Joshi, Chief of the sales and marketing of Buddha Air, said that flights in Kathmandu were not canceled due to weather conditions. Unlike before, now there’s a change in Kathmandu’s weather. There used to be instances where flights couldn’t take off until 10:00 in the morning due to fog. But that’s not the case now. The airport remained closed for only two days during the period. Joshi stated that flights to international destinations were affected.
In January, Buddha Air canceled 133 flights. During the same period last year, they had canceled 118 flights. The increased number of cancellations this time is also because there are more planes in their fleet compared to before. Buddha Air currently operates 17 ATR aircraft, with four of them being added in the past year.
The decreased number of passengers due to cold weather led to cancellations of flights to destinations like Biratnagar, Simara, and Janakpur, but the occupancy in the unaffected flights was pretty good according to him.
Buddha Air now operates 150 flights daily with 15 aircraft. Buddha Air holds a 65% share in domestic flights.
Yeti Airlines stated they didn’t have as many flight cancellations as Buddha Air. Yeti Airlines’ safety chief and spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula mentioned that their flights were not significantly affected by internal flights compared to the previous year.
Comparatively, flights weren’t much affected this year. There wasn’t a single instance of flights not taking off for up to an hour from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). The airport hasn’t closed like before. Perhaps it could be due to climate change, said Bartaula, as we haven’t faced such severe delays in scheduling.
According to him, this year’s weather only affected flights to Biratnagar, Simara, and Bhairahawa for just two days. Yeti Airlines currently operates 52 flights daily with five aircraft. According to Bartaula, there’s an 85% occupancy rate in various destinations’ flights.
Shree Airlines also reported fewer flight cancellations compared to the previous year. However, their spokesperson Anil Manandhar mentioned delays in some destination flights.
Only mountain flights in the morning were canceled. But unlike the previous year, there hasn’t been a problem of airports closing, which resulted in flight cancellations, said Manandhar. However, some flights to Terai were delayed.
The airline operates 18 flights daily with nine aircraft. Manandhar provided information that there’s been more than 80% occupancy in flights.
Currently, there are 250 arrivals and departures from Tribhuvan International Airport to domestic destinations.
Rewrite of a news published by ‘Bizmandu’
