Bad weather cancels 31 domestic flights

KATHMANDU, Feb 6: Adverse weather forced the cancellation of 31 domestic flights Wednesday and a dozen others were delayed. Purna Chudal, chief of Tribhuban International Airport (TIA), said most of the flights were cancelled in the morning because of poor visibility.



“Dense fog caused poor visibility, leading to cancellation of a number of flights,” he said. [break]



Chudal said the flights were resumed in afternoon after visibility improved. “On average most of the domestic flights suffered delays of 1 to 2 hours,” he said.



Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines cancelled 18 mountain flights while 12 flights by Tara Air scheduled for Lukla were called off. Likewise, one flight to Phaplu was also cancelled because of the bad weather.



Airlines are forced to cancel several flights during winter on lucrative sectors such as mountain sight-seeing and Lukla because of the weather.



Destinations in the Tarai region also suffer cancellations and delays because of dense winter fog.



According to officials at TIA, operations on trunk routes, including Biratnagar, Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa and Pokhara, likewise suffered a few hours delay.

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