On Friday and Saturday, only morning flights were cancelled. However, none of the flights were able to take off on Sunday because of poor visibility due to the bad weather condition. Flights to all the districts of Karnali zone, Bajura of far western region, and Kathmandu were called off."Airplanes need at least 1,600 meters of visibility ahead of them to take off and land. However, the visibility remained only 500 meters, which prevented the flights to take off from the airport," informed Bal Krishna Singh, an air traffic control (ATC) officer of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
According to him, all morning flights were delayed on Friday and 21 flights were cancelled on Sunday. Similarly, ten flights of Tara Air, three of Kathmandu Air and three of Simrik Air were cancelled on Sunday.
Nepalgunj-based CAAN Director Prapta Babu Tiwari informed this was the first time this year that domestic flights were delayed in the district. "We were forced to cancel flights as there was no improvement in the weather," he added. Around 300 passengers are said to have been affected by the flights obstruction.
"At least 150 of our passengers have been affected by flights cancellation," said incharge of Tara Air services in Nepalgunj, Dillip Karki. Passengers heading to various hill and mountainous districts have been stranded.
Aircrafts of Nepal Airlines Corporation, Tara, Yeti, Sita, Buddha, Kathamndu, Simrik and Goma Airlines operate services from Ranjha Airport to places like Kathmandu, Surkhet, Dolpa, Achham, Sanfebagar, Simikot, Jumla, Mugu, Rukum and Bajhang.
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