NepalCivil Aviation
Airplane at an unpaved landing strip at Lukla,
en route to the Khumbu region, gateway to the Everest area
Courtesy Janet MacDonald
Air transportation to Kathmandu from India started
around 1950.
Although the primary airport is Tribhuvan International
Airport
outside Kathmandu, more than thirty airfields have been
added since
the 1950s. The primary domestic air routes from Kathmandu
in 1991
were to Jumla, Bhairahwa, Biratnagar, Nepalganj, Gorkha,
and
Pokhara. There also were international flights from West
European
cities, such as London and Frankfurt, and Asian cities,
including
Karachi, Paro (in Bhutan), New Delhi, Hong Kong, and
Bangkok, to
Kathmandu. Several airlines, including Royal Nepal
Airlines (owned
by the government), connected Kathmandu with cities in
other parts
of the world. These flights have facilitated international
traffic
considerably. Royal Nepal Airlines reported approximately
452,000
passengers in FY 1986, approximately 569,200 passengers in
FY 1988,
and approximately 608,300 passengers in FY 1990. The
carrier
transported almost 3,900 tons of freight in FY 1986,
approximately
6,000 tons in FY 1988, and about 7,260 tons in FY 1990.
The Royal
Nepal Airlines fleet, which was to be increased by two
Boeing 757
aircraft in 1991, was often disabled by poor maintenance
and lack
of spare parts and aircraft. In the absence of Nepalese
operations,
the Soviet Union's Aeroflot, Bhutan's Druk-Air, and Hong
Kong's
Dragonair began servicing Kathmandu during 1990.
Data as of September 1991
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