National flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) plane has landed at Gautam Buddha Airport in Bhairahawa from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, with 97 passengers.
The plane from Kuala Lumpur with 97 passengers including 11 foreigners onboard landed at Gautam Buddha International Airport on Tuesday morning.
Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Sudan Kirati, welcomed passengers who came on the NAC’s airbus.
Tourism Minister Sudan Kirati has reached Bhairahawa to welcome the passengers coming from the first commercial international flight of Nepal Airlines.
A year after the airport came into operation, the National flag carrier has started commercial flights between Malaysia-Bhairawa-Kathmandu for the first time.
The Corporation's 158-seater narrow-body airbus landed in Bhairahawa from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia.
Among the 97 passengers on the ship, 11 are Malaysian tourism professionals. After landing at Bhairahawa, the Malaysian tourism professionals are scheduled to return to Malaysia after visiting Kathmandu and Lumbini.
The NAC had announced a promotional air fare of Rs 11,000 for the Malaysia-Bhairawa route. Currently, the corporation is selling one-way tickets for Malaysia-Bhairawa at Rs 31,000 and Malaysia-Kathmandu at Rs 56,000.
It takes around five hours to fly from Malaysia to Bhairahawa. The airbus is coming to Kathmandu after dropping passengers at Bhairahawa. The ship had gone to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday night.
Bhairahawa Airport was inaugurated on May 17, 2022 by the then Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba. The government has spent more than 10 billion rupees to build this airport. But due to lack of international flights, it has become difficult for the government to maintain this airport.
Earlier, narrow-body and wide-body aircraft of the corporation had conducted test flights. But only Jazeera Airlines of Kuwait had conducted commercial flights here.
Along with Jazeera, Himalayan Airlines launched a chartered flight to Malaysia last October. But now they don't conduct flights regularly.
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