Biratnagar-Pokhara flight comes to a halt over COVID-19 fears

– Birat Anupam

The first inter-state direct flight between State 1 and Gandaki State has come to a halt since March. The historic flight linking Biratnagar and Pokhara was started from February 3. The last flight was on February 28.

”We couldn’t get enough passengers on our 18-seater Beechcraft 1900D aircraft from the beginning”, informed Kausal Bhandari, the Biratnagar station manager of the Buddha Air who started the maiden flight. He added, ”Corona virus added insult to our injury.” Bhandari said seven Indian passengers from Pokhara cancelled their ticket on their last flight owing to corona virus scare.

”We didn’t find foreigners from the beginning and when we were about to lure high-paying tourists from Pokhara to Biratnagar, Corona virus came our way disrupting all flights,” said Bhandari.

The private carrier had started three flights in a week in every alternate day with introductory price of Rs 7200. Later on, it increased the fare to Rs. 7200. Had the 205 nautical miles and 65-minutes-long flight been a success story for couple of months, Nepal’s largest private aviation player in terms of annual passengers carried, was afoot to introduce 72-seater aircraft, related Bhandari.