Two years after Pokhara International Airport came into operation, a jet aircraft took off from there for the first time on Thursday with full capacity of passengers. Airbus A-319 of Sichuan Airlines landed in Pokhara with 129 passengers from Chhendu, China and landed in Kathmandu from there with 126 passengers.
"The lack of regular international flights from Pokhara International Airport spread the illusion that there was a technical error," Civil Aviation Authority Director General Pradeep Adhikari, who came from Pokhara on the same flight, told the tourism industry at a press conference held at Kathmandu Airport. Now do the business of regularizing flights to Pokhara. The authority will help where needed.'
The ship from Chhendu landed in Pokhara via the Whiskey-41 air route connecting Pokhara over the skies of Kathmandu. From there, the aircraft landed in Kathmandu via Simra following IFR flight rules with the help of instruments.
The design of Pokhara International Airport was based on the capabilities of the Boeing-757 that Nepal Air Service Corporation had at that time, said Devachandralal Karna, the deputy director general of the flying authority.
The American Boeing 757 aircraft with a single gallery is considered effective for domestic short and international medium-haul flights (up to 7,000 km). The Airbus A-319 aircraft flown by Sichuan on Thursday from Pokhara is also of similar capacity.
After Sichuan landed in Kathmandu, it flew to China with passengers according to the regular flight schedule. Deputy director Karna said that the plane took off from the middle of the runway from Pokhara, which has a 2500-meter long runway.
'Earlier there were many doubts, misgivings and fabrications about Pokhara airport. "Someone said that because of the mountains, large ships cannot fly with passengers," said Karna, who was previously the general manager of Pokhara Airport, "today, the confusion has been cleared." The promotional flight of the Airbus plane has proven that Pokhara Airport is technically correct.'
