Butwal, October 6
Nepal Airlines will operate a special chartered flight this afternoon to bring stranded passengers from Bhairahawa to Kathmandu after heavy rainfall disrupted road transport.
The chartered flight was initially scheduled for Sunday night but was postponed due to insufficient preparations. It has now been rescheduled for 2:45 pm on Monday, said Pratap Babu Tiwari, general manager of Gautam Buddha International Airport. “The flight was delayed yesterday due to various reasons, but it will operate this afternoon,” he confirmed.
Chief District Officer of Rupandehi, Dr Tokraj Pandey, said the plane will arrive in Bhairahawa from Kathmandu at 1 pm and return to Kathmandu at 2:45 pm. Though there were some technical issues in issuing tickets through the airport counters, the administration has collected passenger names and will proceed on that basis, he added.
On Sunday, at the request of the Rupandehi District Administration Office, Nepal Airlines had prepared to operate a 158-seat aircraft to fly passengers from Bhairahawa to Kathmandu at 8 pm. The airline had already secured Civil Aviation Authority approval to operate an Airbus A320 flight between 7:15 pm and 9:45 pm and had begun collecting passenger names.
Nepal Airlines has fixed the airfare at Rs 5,000 for Kathmandu–Bhairahawa and Rs 7,000 for Bhairahawa–Kathmandu. According to CDO Pandey, priority will be given to patients traveling for treatment, passengers with international flight connections, workers, students, and tourists.
