Widebody completes ‘demonstration’ flight in Bhairahawa

A widebody aircraft of Nepal Airlines Corporation has conducted a ‘demonstration’ flight from Tribhuvan International Airport to Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa on Thursday. The test flight was conducted to convey the message that the airport is qualified to operate national and international flights. The aeroplane was greeted by a fountain of water on the occasion. The Civil Aviation Authority on Wednesday granted permission to the corporation to fly to the newly constructed Gautam Buddha International Airport. The authority had given permission for two wide body aircraft owned by the corporation for demonstration flight on Thursday.

The demonstration was led by Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Prem Ale. There were at least 250 passengers on plane during the demo flight. Among them were high officials of Nepal Airlines, employees of the corporation, high government officials, representatives of Asian Development Bank, journalists among others. The corporation’s widebody plane was scheduled to take off from Bhairahawa at 3 pm but the flight took off from Kathmandu airport at 5:15 pm. According to the corporation’s operations department, Widebody’s flight from Kathmandu to Bhairahawa took 27 minutes. But since it was a test flight, it landed only by ‘oversight’. The ship was flown by the team of Instructor Pilot Sudhir Tomar and Captain Shravan Rijal.