The new international airport in Pokhara finally has a scheduled passenger flight—with at least one weekly trip.

On Monday, Nepal-Tibet joint venture Himalaya Airlines took off from Lhasa Gonggar Airport at 2:39 pm (Chinese local time) and landed at Pokhara International Airport at 1:56 pm (local time).

The flight was slightly delayed due to erratic winds.

There were 107 passengers, including 32 Chinese and 75 Nepalis. The 144-seater all-economy Airbus A319 received a water cannon salute welcome at the airport.

It was the first scheduled passenger flight from Pokhara since the airport’s inauguration on January 1, 2023.

The Pokhara-Lhasa flight distance is around 90 minutes.

Prem Nath Thakur, the general manager of Pokhara airport, expressed optimism about future flights, stating that this is just the beginning.

According to him, to promote the new facility and attract airlines, the airport has offered waivers for landing, parking, and ground handling fees for two years. Additionally, it has waived the passenger service charge of Rs3,000 per tourist on departing flight.

Despite these incentives, airlines find operations costly, particularly at the new airport.

Vijay Shrestha, spokesperson for Himalaya Airlines, said they have started with a weekly flight and will increase frequency based on demand.

The operation from Nepal is expensive due to higher fuel prices. Aviation turbine fuel (ATF) costs $848.32 per kilolitre in New Delhi, while it costs a staggering $1,003 per kilolitre in Kathmandu.

Operators point out that fuel consumption is a significant issue in airline management, with a jet’s fuel consumption usually around 3 to 4 litres per passenger per 100 kilometres, making fuel the top operational cost at around 30 percent of total expenses.

Flying at higher altitudes requires less fuel due to reduced air resistance, but reaching such altitudes requires more fuel initially. The fuel issue remains the biggest challenge for operators in Nepal, coupled with various taxes, including VAT, on tickets.

Shrestha said that as Pokhara International Airport is new, both the federal and provincial governments should incentivise airlines to encourage operations.

He suggested that the government should promote Pokhara airport from a tourism perspective by categorising the airport as strategically important, as many other countries do. He also recommended promoting Bhairahawa Airport, another international airport in the southern Tarai plains, as a budget airport to attract airlines.

On Tuesday, Himalaya Airlines is flying with 30 passengers from Pokhara to Lhasa.

According to the schedule, the Pokhara-Lhasa flight will depart from Pokhara International Airport at 8:20 am (local time) on April 1 and land at Lhasa Gonggar Airport at 12:05 pm (Chinese local time).

According to Shrestha, Himalaya Airlines aims to operate flights to 10 different tourist destinations in China from both Pokhara and Kathmandu, with a mission to bring a million Chinese tourists a year to Nepal.

He believes bringing a million Chinese is possible, but it depends on government policies.

Due to the government’s lack of interest, tourism entrepreneurs in Pokhara have themselves initiated efforts to promote and market the new airport. Recently, the Pokhara Tourism Council, an umbrella organisation of tourism entrepreneurs, collaborated with China’s Sichuan Airlines to launch charter flights between Chengdu, China, and Pokhara, Nepal.

Baburam Pandey, acting president of the Pokhara Tourism Council, told the Post in a recent interview that Chengdu-based Sichuan Airlines has committed to operating flights for 10 weeks, aiming to bring 1,250 Chinese tourists to Pokhara, with one flight arriving each week.

The council received a proposal from Sichuan Airlines stating that if they guaranteed three flights from Pokhara, the airline would operate ten flights, which was agreed upon, hoping these chartered flights would lead to regular passenger flights.

Charter flights involve renting an entire aircraft rather than individual seats. The cost of each chartered flight from Pokhara to Chengdu amounts to Rs7.8 million, which Nepali businesses must cover for the guaranteed flights.

According to Thakur, the charter flight initiative is ongoing, but there has been no formal notification on scheduled passenger flights from Sichuan Airlines.

The $215.96 million Pokhara International Airport, funded by Beijing, was inaugurated on January 1, 2023. The expectation was that Pokhara, as Nepal’s tourism capital, would no longer depend on Kathmandu for tourist inflow and would directly attract visitors.

Pokhara, which serves as the gateway to the world-famous Annapurna Circuit trekking route, has seen significant investments in the hospitality industry after the construction of the new airport.

However, the airport has yet to attract regular passenger flights, becoming entangled in geopolitics and it is often seen as an example of the challenges associated with China’s global infrastructure projects.

A day before its inauguration by then-prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu tweeted that the project was a flagship initiative under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). While Beijing asserts that the airport was built under the BRI, the Nepal government has not officially acknowledged this.

The construction of Pokhara airport resulted from intense lobbying by Pokhara’s entrepreneurs, who even staged hunger strikes in 2012 to push for the project. In January 2016, the Nepal government secured a 20-year soft loan from the Chinese EXIM Bank to finance its development.

The airport, situated in a bowl-shaped and narrow valley, can only accommodate narrow-body planes. India continues to deny air entry routes to both Pokhara and Bhairahawa international airports, another airport constructed in Nepal with the help of a Chinese contractor.

Shrestha of Himalaya Airlines stated that the launch of the Lhasa flight aligns with efforts to make Visit Pokhara Year 2025 a success, intending to welcome two million tourists, including Nepalis.

Simultaneously, Beijing has announced a ‘Visit Nepal 2025’ campaign to support Nepal’s tourism industry.

“Today, the Pokhara people's dream of directly scheduled international flights has come true! The first ever direct scheduled international flight from Lhasa landed at Pokhara International Airport by Himalaya Airlines,” Chinese ambassador to Nepal Chen Song wrote on X.

“A milestone not only for Nepali and Pokhara people but also for the connectivity and friendship between China and Nepal, celebrating the 70 years of diplomatic ties between our two countries.”