Station manager of Tara Air in Pokhara Ram Lamichhane said the airlines will operate 19-seater Twin Otter aircraft for the 20-minute flight between Pokhara and Humde Airport in Manang. [break]
"The number of trekkers in Annapurna Circuit has gone up and the demand of locals is also high as there is no proper means of surface transport," Lamichhane said. "We plan to keep a twin-otter in Pokhara which will be used for Manang and Jomson," He said there will be only flight per week but hopes to increase the frequency in future.
The cost of one way flight has been fixed at Rs 3,300 and dollar fare for the sector is $ 123.
Until now private airlines had operated chartered flight in the sector. Only scheduled flight between Pokhara and Manang district was discontinued by the the state owned Nepal Airlines (NAC) because of lack of aircrafts. Until the stoppage of service, NAC had operated two flights a week.
Recently the runway of Hunde airport was black topped as part of government efforts to upgrade facilities there.
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