Kathmandu, February 17.  Gautam Buddha International Airport is set to start commercial flights. It will start on the occasion of Buddha Purnima, i.e. May 16.

The commercial test flight (calibration flight) will begin on Friday, at the country’s second international airport. According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Director General Pradip Adhikari, all required preparations have been undertaken for the airport’s operation. He further stated that the calibration flight will take place over the course of seven days.

Today, an Aero Thai plane landed in Nepal for that purpose. According to CAAN engineer Muluk Mishra, the HS-AIM aircraft, which arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport from Thailand in the afternoon, has arrived at Bhairahawa airport today.
Commercial flights will begin after the test flight is successful.

The airport can handle the same number of passengers as TIA (Tribhuvan International Airport), but one more terminal must be constructed at the earliest. While the project suffered technical and other setbacks due to covid-19, CAAN followed up and intervened to complete the project.

The airport was constructed by a Chinese construction company-Northwest Civil Aviation Construction Group at a subsidized loan by the Asian Development Bank. A total of Rs 11 billion has been spent for the construction of the airport.  

As Gautam Buddha International Airport is coming to operation very soon, it is believed that it would help reduce the pressure of the TIA.