October 10, Butwal
After remaining without international flights for six months, Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa will see the resumption of flights by Thai AirAsia from October 26.
According to airport general manager Pratap Babu Tiwari, Thai AirAsia has received approval to operate two flights per week from Bhairahawa. “Thai AirAsia will operate two weekly flights starting October 26. Other airlines, including Jazeera Airways, are also in the pipeline,” Tiwari said. “Coordination is ongoing with Jazeera’s country director and the airport office.”
Jazeera Airways is expected to begin flights after Tihar. In April, when Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu was under maintenance, four foreign airlines operated from Bhairahawa for about a month, with up to 20 weekly flights.
In the five months prior to the suspension of regular international flights in April, over 7,000 passengers traveled through more than 200 flights. Since then, only a few chartered flights have taken place.
The airport was inaugurated on May 16, 2022 (coinciding with the 2566th Buddha Jayanti). Since its inauguration, Nepal Airlines, Fly Dubai, Jazeera Airways (Kuwait), Thai AirAsia (Thailand), and Himalaya Airlines have conducted commercial flights.
However, due to the lack of regular international flights, hotel and tourism entrepreneurs in the region have repeatedly protested. According to Netra Acharya, president of the Siddhartha Chamber of Commerce and Industry, private investors have invested around Rs 100 billion in Bhairahawa and surrounding areas targeting the airport. With the suspension of flights, many are struggling to repay loans and interest, some have sold their star-rated hotels, and several under-construction projects have been left incomplete.
In one year, Gautam Buddha International Airport recorded 556 international flight movements (takeoffs and landings).
Over the past five years, a total of 1,057 international flight movements took place through the airport, with 29,621 passengers arriving and 31,641 departing amounting to 61,254 passengers in total.
In the current fiscal year alone, 10 flights have landed, all of which were chartered.
In fiscal year 2024–25, 278 international flights (takeoffs and landings) were recorded, with 12,830 passengers arriving in Bhairahawa and 11,128 departing, according to airport information officer Binod Singh Rawat.
He said that in FY 2021–22, 56 flight landings handled 6,318 passengers; in FY 2022–23, 315 flights handled 28,998 passengers; and in FY 2023–24, 120 flights handled 1,976 passengers.
To attract more foreign airlines to operate international flights from Bhairahawa and Pokhara airports, the government has introduced several incentives. These include a waiver of the Rs 3,000 per passenger service charge, full exemption on parking, landing, and navigation fees, and a 75 per cent discount on ground handling fees provided by Nepal Airlines. Additionally, airlines are offered a $100 fuel discount per flight.
Despite these measures, foreign airlines have not yet shown sufficient interest, as business operators cite the lack of essential government offices and Kathmandu-centered air ticketing businesses as major challenges.
