Drukair Makes Historic First Landing at PRIA with Crew and 3 Passengers

Drukair, Royal Bhutan Airlines of Bhutan, has made a commercial flight at Pokhara International Airport, for the first time today.

An aircraft of Drukair with crew members and three passengers landed at Pokhara International Airport at 6:40 AM this morning from Paro Airport of Thimpu. The aircraft returned to Thimpu from Pokhara International Airport at 8:15 AM today carrying 42 passengers.

According to Pokhara International Airport, the commercial international flight took place for the first time eight months after the airport came into operation.

The Pokhara International Airport was inaugurated on January 1, 2023. Minister for Industry, Tourism, Forest and Environment of Gandaki Province, Dipendra Bahadur Thapa, Mayor of Pokhara Metropolitan City, Dhanraj Acharya, Chairperson of Pokhara Tourism Council, Pom Narayan Shrestha, tourism entrepreneurs bade farewell to the tourists flying to Thimpu from Pokhara International Airport.

Devendra Lal Karna, Chief of Pokhara Airport, shared that it is the first that that the Airport made income through any international flight. The Airport made Rs 3,000 income per passenger.

He added, “This is the first commercial international flight from Pokhara Airport. We call it a revenue flight. It is a chartered flight. We had made a huge effort for it and had pledged a good facility for the airline company. They were convinced to operate the flight.”

The American tourists, who were on a tour to Nepal, India and Bhutan, reached Thimpu by a chartered flight chartered by an Indian agency. The American tourists stayed in Pokhara for three days where they participated in adventure sports such as paragliding.

The Airport in Pokhara is only limited to internal flights at present. Earlier, Sichuan Airlines of China had made a chartered flight to Pokhara.