Hundreds of passengers including foreign tourists in distress as poor visibility halts flights to and from PRIA

POKHARA, April 27: Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA) remained closed even on Saturday due to poor visibility caused by haze, leaving hundreds of passengers including foreign tourists in distress.

Nabina Karmacharya, General Manager of PRIA, said that flights could not operate as visibility dropped to only 1,000 meters, far below the minimum required for safe landing and takeoff operations. To land at PRIA, visibility must be at least 3,700 meters, while a minimum of 1600 meters is required for takeoff.

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An aircraft requires adequate visibility to fly from PRIA. Karmacharya stated that the visibility at PRIA had been around 2000 meters earlier in the week, but on Saturday, it dropped to just 1,000 meters. “This abrupt reduction forced airlines to cancel flights, disrupting travel plans and stranding passengers,” she said.

Buddha Air operates 17 flights daily on the Pokhara-Kathmandu route, with additional flights to Bharatpur, Bhairahawa, and Nepalgunj. Yeti Airlines also operates 10 flights a day on the Pokhara-Kathmandu route. She said that with the airport closed, both airlines, airports, and the tourism sector suffered huge financial losses, and many tourists were left without alternative transportation.

On Friday, passengers waited at PRIA for hours, hoping for improved visibility conditions, but had to leave the airport as no flights could depart or land. Many tourists were forced to return to their hotels and travel to Kathmandu by bus on Saturday.

According to a local tourism entrepreneur, the lack of flights also stranded tourists in Kathmandu who were planning to visit Pokhara.