Fly Dubai, which had suspended flights from Gautam Buddha International Airport, Bhairahawa since mid-December, is set to resume the flights from mid-January.
Fly Dubai is preparing to resume flights at the Gautam Buddha International Airport from January 13, 2025. It had suspended its flight from the airport since December 15 citing weather conditions. Fly Dubai has been operating daily flights from Dubai-Bhairahawa-Kathmandu-Dubai. Navaraj Shahi, Sales Manager of Fly Dubai, GSA Universal Tours and Travel, said that flights had been suspended due to adverse weather conditions and regular flights would resume from January 13, 2025. Although the Instrument Landing System (ILS), a technology that can take-off and land even in low light, has been installed it has not been operational due to technical factors.
As the ILS technology is not in use, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has made preparations to introduce the satellite-based technology RNP-AR from January 23, 2025 as an alternative. Due to the weather, Jazeera Airways has suspended Kuwait-Bhairahawa-Kuwait flights from December 13 until mid-January 2025.
According to Jazeera Airways, it is planning to resume its flight from January 23. Similarly, Qatar Airways operated flights as per schedule and has now suspended flights. In the meantime, Air Asia is operating a weekly flight from Bangkok-Bhairahawa-Bangkok. Air Asia’s scheduled flights are now on December 26 and January 2.
According to Sagar Chitrakar, representative of Nepal GSA Universal for Air Asia, passengers in both directions on the Bangkok-Bhairahawa sector are gradually increasing.
Shahi of Fly Dubai said that the number of passengers flying from Dubai to Bhairahawa was good and the number of passengers going to Dubai is also increasing. Fly Dubai is also considering to operate regular flights on Dubai-Bhairahawa-Kathmandu-Dubai route. Meanwhile, Kathmandu-Bhairahawa-Dubai flights of Nepal Airlines are also continuing four times a week, according to Binod Singh Rawat, Information Officer at Gautam Buddha International Airport, Civil Aviation Authority Office, Bhairahawa.
