Bhutan Civil Aviation
Paro, the air gateway to Bhutan and a major district seat
Courtesy Ann Kinney
The national air carrier of Bhutan was established in
1981 as
Royal Bhutan Airlines, known as Druk-Air. Thrice-weekly,
ninetyminute service between Paro and Calcutta was inaugurated
in 1983
using a Dornier 228-200 twenty-seat airplane purchased
from West
Germany. A second Dornier was later added, increasing
round-trips
between Paro and Calcutta to five weekly during the busy
spring and
fall tourist seasons. By 1991 Druk-Air operated
international
flights to Bangkok, Calcutta, New Delhi, Dhaka, and
Kathmandu. In
November 1988, Druk-Air began using a four-engine,
eighty-seat
British Aerospace BAe 146-100 airplane for its five
flights weekly:
two from Bangkok and Dhaka, two from New Delhi and
Kathmandu, and
one from Calcutta. The cabin crew was trained by Thai
Airways. By
1989 the two Dornier aircraft had been taken out of
service. As
Druk-Air flights increased, so did the number of
passengers. In
1983 some 2,800 passengers were carried, and by 1987, the
latest
year for which statistics were reported by the government,
8,700
passengers were carried.
Travelers arriving at the one-story international
terminal in
Paro--the only airport with a permanent-surface
runway--were
transported by minibus to Thimphu. The Paro airport had
its runway
extended from 1,500 meters to 2,000 meters in 1988 and was
further
improved with a new hangar and an extended runway in 1990.
There
was a small, paved-runway airport at Yonphula, Tashigang
District
but it was seldom used. Thimphu was served by air only by
helicopter, but helipads were available throughout the
country.
Aviation in Bhutan in the 1980s and early 1990s was
regulated
by the Department of Civil Aviation and Transport. Under
the
Ministry of Communications, the department provided
weather data
and air traffic controllers. Druk-Air, although government
owned,
was a separate entity from the regulatory department.
Data as of September 1991
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