Air flights have been stopped for six months at the Patan Airport in Baitadi – a hill district in Sudurpaschim Province and about 855km west from Kathmandu. The airport was paved two years ago at a cost of Rs. 110 million.
In October 2020, the then Tourism Minister, Yogesh Bhattarai had inaugurated the airport with fanfare and assured that regular service would be provided from Baitadi.
The once-a-week Dhangadhi-Baitadi air service has been stopped for six months immediately after the runway of the airport was blacktopped. It has caused troubles to the people here who are deprived of emergency services.
Summit Air had been conducting the 17-minute Baitadi-Dhangadhi flight at a fare of Rs. 4,500 every Thursday. Since then, there has been no flight for six consecutive months.
Basanta Bista, a resident of Patan, said that when the air service was suddenly stopped at the airport built by the state at a cost of millions of rupees, citizens who had to go to Dhangadhi for various works suddenly found themselves in trouble.
Baitadi representative of Summit Air, Krishna Dutta Bhatta, said that due to dearth of passengers and unfavorable weather conditions, flights were cancelled at Baitadi Airport.
He said, “There is a possibility that the flights will resume during Dashain festival. Due to adverse weather conditions and lack of passengers, flights have been suspended for six months.”
Patan Airport, which had regular flight operations for 16 years in 1980s and 90s, was closed since 1995 after the infrastructure was destroyed during the conflict.
Later, Rs. 110 million were spent for the upgrading of the airport.
Source : TRN,
