Tribhuvan International Airport

Tribhuvan International Airport त्रिभुवन विमानस्थल
IATA: KTM – ICAO: VNKT KTM Location of airport in Nepal
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN)
Serves		Kathmandu, Nepal
Elevation AMSL		4,390 ft / 1,338 m
Website		www.tiairport.com.np
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
	m	ft
02/20	3,050	10,007	concrete
Statistics (2009)
Passengers			3,405,015
Passenger change 08-09			18.8%
Aircraft Movements			91,884
Movements change 08-09			10.0%
Sources: CAAN [1] and DAFIF [2][3]

Tribhuvan International Airport (Nepali: त्रिभुवन विमानस्थल) (IATA: KTM, ICAO: VNKT) is an international airport situated in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Tribhuvan is the sole international airport in Nepal. There are two terminals, one domestic and one international. Radisson Hotel Kathmandu operates an executive lounge for first and business class passengers for various airlines and Thai Airways International operates a business lounge for its Business class passengers, as well as Star Alliance Gold card holders. A recent extension to the international terminal has made the distance to the airplanes shorter. At present, about 30 international airlines connect Nepal to various other destinations in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The airport is about six kilometers from the city center, in the Kathmandu valley.

Contents 1 History 2 Airlines and destinations 3 Incidents and accidents 4 References 5 External links

History

The airport began life as Gauchar Airport, named after the area of Kathmandu in which it was situated. The formal beginning of aviation in Nepal occurred in 1949 with the landing of a lone, 4 seater, Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft, carrying the Indian Ambassador. The first charter flight took place between Gaucher and Calcutta, in a Himalayan Aviation Dakota on 20 February 1950.^[4]

In 1955 the airport was inaugurated by King Mahendra and renamed Tribhuvan Airport in memory of the king's father. The airport was again renamed Tribhuvan International Airport in 1964. The original grass runway was relayed in concrete in 1957 and extended from 3,750 feet (1,140 m) long, to 6,600 feet (2,000 m) long in 1967. The runway was again extended from 6,600 feet (2,000 m) to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) in 1975.^[4]

The first jet aircraft to land at Tribhuvan was a Lufthansa Boeing 707, which touched down on the 6,600 feet (2,000 m) runway in 1967. Royal Nepal Airlines commenced jet operations at the airport in 1972 with Boeing 727 aircraft.^[4]

Airlines and destinations

Airlines	Destinations
Agni Air	Bhadrapur, Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Lukla, Pokhara, Tumlingtar [5]
Air Arabia	Sharjah
Air China	Chengdu, Lhasa
Air India	Delhi, Kolkata, Varanasi
ArkeFly	Amsterdam
Bahrain Air	Bahrain
Biman Bangladesh Airlines	Dhaka
Buddha Air	Bhadrapur, Bhairahawa, Bharatpur, Biratnagar, Delhi, Dhangadhi, Janakpur, Lucknow, Nepalgunj, Pokhara Charter: Paro, Simara, Tumlingtar
China Eastern Airlines	Kunming
China Southern Airlines	Guangzhou
Dragonair	Hong Kong
Druk Air	Bagdogra, Delhi, Paro
Etihad Airways	Abu Dhabi
Flydubai	Dubai
Guna Airlines	Pokhara, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Simara, Bhairahawa[6]
GMG Airlines	Dhaka
Gulf Air	Bahrain
IndiGo	Delhi
Jet Airways	Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai
JetLite	Delhi
Kingfisher Airlines	Delhi
Korean Air	Seoul-Incheon
Nepal Airlines	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi, Bhojpur, Chaurjhari, Delhi, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Kageldanda, Khanidanda, Kuala Lumpur, Lamidanda, Lukla, Phaplu, Pokhara, Rukumkot, Rumjatar, Thamkharka, Tumlingtar [7]
Oman Air	Muscat
Pakistan International Airlines	Islamabad, Karachi
Qatar Airways	Doha
SilkAir	Singapore
Sita Air	Biratnagar, Dang, Dhangadhi, Janakpur, Jomsom, Lukla, Pokhara, Tumlingtar [8]
Spicejet	Delhi
Tara Air	Bajura, Bharatpur, Dolpa, Jomsom, Jumla, Lamidanda, Lukla, Meghauli, Nepalgunj, Phaplu, Pokhara, Ramechhap, Rara, Rumjatar, Simikot, Surkhet, Tumlingtar[9]
Thai Airways International	Bangkok-Suvarnabhumi
United Airways	Dhaka
Yeti Airlines	Bhadrapur, Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Dhangadhi, Janakpur, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Tumlingtar, Simara[10]

Incidents and accidents

• 10 May 1972 - A Douglas DC-8 of Thai Airways International overran the runway on landing at Kathmandu International Airport. There was 1 fatality out of 100 passengers and 10 crew on board.^[11]

• 31 July 1992 - An Airbus 310-304, operating as Thai Airways International Flight 311 crashed into a mountain while approaching Kathmandu killing all 113 on board.

• 28 September 1992 - An Airbus A300 operating as PIA Flight 268 crashed killing all 167 on board.

• 17 January 1995 - Royal Nepal Airlines De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 (9N-ABI), flight RA133 from Kathmandu to Rumjatar, had problems getting airborne at Tribhuvan International Airport, struck the airfield perimeter fence and plunged into fields. Of three crew and 21 passengers on board, one crew member and one passenger were killed.^[12]

• 5 September 1999 - Necon Air Flight 128 from Pokhara to Kathmandu, an BAe 748-501 Super 2B (9N-AEG), collided with a communication tower of Nepal Telecommunication Corporation and crashed in a wooded area 25 km west of Kathmandu, while approaching Tribhuvan International Airport. All 10 passengers and 5 crew were killed.^[13]

• 26 December 1999 - Indian Airlines Flight 814 plane was hijacked en-route from Kathmandu to Delhi. The aircraft eventually ended up in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Indian Airlines suspended all flights to and from Nepal for some time, fearing lack of security at checkin.

• 24 December 2008 - A Nepal Airlines DHC6 Twin otter 300(9N ABM) ran off the runway during takeoff ^[14]

• 24 August 2010 - Agni Air Flight 101, a Dornier Do 228 aircraft, registration 9N-AHE, crashed into the hills outside Kathmandu in heavy rain.^[15] All on board (3 crew, 11 passengers) were killed, with the pilot having reported a generator failure.^[16] The plane, crashed near Shikharpur village, 80 km (50 mi) south of Kathmandu. There were six foreigners on board, four Americans, one Japanese and one UK citizen. Witnesses said the plane had broken into small pieces. The plane had left Tribhuvan International Airport, bound for Tenzing-Hillary Airport.

• 15 December 2010 - A Tara Air Twin otter Plane leaving from Lamidanda's Lamidanda Airport,for Kathmandu lost signal 162 km (101 mi) east of Kathmandu.There were 19 passengers and three crew members on board the plane.All passengers were Bhutanese citizens and the three crew members were Nepali citizens.It was later found that the plane had been in a crash and all the passengers and crew members died and their bodies were all scattered around the crash site.

• 25 September 2011 - A Beechcraft 1900D passenger plane, operated by Buddha Air, struck terrain while on approach to Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM), Nepal. There was a total of 16 tourists and 3 crew members on board. Initial reports say there was one survivor, but this person died on the way to the hospital. The weather was overcast with very low clouds on the approach. Flights were operating normally under VFR rules at the time of the accident. The Beech 1900 was on the base leg of the approach following a sightseeing flight.

References

External links

• Tribhuvan International Airport, official site
• "Dec. 26 - Jan. 1; India Hijack Crisis Ends". The New York Times. January 2, 2000. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E7D91138F931A35752C0A9669C8B63. 
• Current weather for Kathmandu Airport, Nepal (VNKT) at NOAA/NWS
• Accident history for KTM / VNKT at Aviation Safety Network