Pokhara Airport
| Pokhara Airport | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | |||||||||||
  PKR | |||||||||||
| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Operator | Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) | ||||||||||
| Serves | Pokhara, Nepal | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 2,712 ft / 827 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | Coordinates: 28°12′03″N 083°58′55″E / 28.20083°N 83.98194°E | ||||||||||
| Runways | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Pokhara Airport (IATA: PKR, ICAO: VNPK), is a regional airport serving Pokhara in Nepal. The airport was established on 4 July 1958 and is operated by the government (Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal). It offers regular connections to Kathmandu and Jomsom; and seasonal connections to Manang. Following a new agreement on air travel between India and Nepal,[4] Pokhara is to be the site of Nepal's second international airport. Construction started in the southeast of Pokhara in 2009 but is only progressing slowly.[5] In 2011 Buddha Air, a Nepali private airline, began international flights from Pokhara to Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, India,[6] and has announced plans to fly to New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport in the future.[7]
The apron of the airport is tiny and can only handle 8 small propeller planes at a time. Pokhara Airport is a diversion airport for the main airport TIA in times of problems such as fog, and due to short runway and crowded apron often must re-divert flights to third airports with even shorter runways.[8]
The airport is capable to handle aircraft from the Nepalese Army Air Service.
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Buddha Air | Kathmandu [9] |
| Gorkha Airlines | Jomsom, Kathmandu |
| Nepal Airlines | Jomsom, Kathmandu, Manang [10] |
| Sita Air | Jomsom, Kathmandu [11] |
| Simrik Airlines | Kathmandu [12] |
| Tara Air | Jomsom, Kathmandu [13] |
| Yeti Airlines | Kathmandu [14] |
Incidents and accidents
- 6 November 1997 – A Necon Air Avro 748-100 (9N-ACM), after a flight from Kathmandu, suffered a hydraulic system failure after landing at Pokhara Airport and ran off the runway. The pilot steered the plane back on the runway after 100 metres (330 ft), but it ran onto the ramp and struck another Avro 748 (9N-ACW) of Nepal Airlines), which was parked engineless. There were no fatalities among the 44 passengers and 4 crew.[15]
- 22 August 2002 – A Shangri-La Air De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300, on a flight from Jomsom to Pokhara, crashed into a hill which was under complete cloud cover following 3 days of continuous rain. All 3 crew and 15 passengers were killed.[16]
- 16 February 2014 - A Nepal Airlines 9N-ABB A Nepal Airlines plane crashed shortly after taking off for a flight from the Nepali resort town of Pokhara to Jumla, in the country’s far west. Nepal plane crash in bad weather killed all 18 on board.
See also
References
- ↑ Pokhara Airport at Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, accessed 4 March 2011
- ↑ Airport information for VNPK at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.Source: DAFIF.
- ↑ Airport information for PKR at Great Circle Mapper. Source: DAFIF (effective Oct. 2006).
- ↑ "International Pokhara: Buddha Air eyes Indian tourism and pilgrim market", Nepali Times issue #274, 30 October 2010, accessed 4 March 2011.
- ↑ "Construction of international airport in Nepal's Pokhara inaugurated", Xinhuanet, 9 December 2009, accessed 4 March 2011.
- ↑ "Buddha Air Lucknow flight", buddhaair.com, accessed 28 September 2012.
- ↑ "Buddha Air plans to start Pokhara-New Delhi flight", "Tour Nepal", accessed 28 September 2012.
- ↑ http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=71653
- ↑ "Flight Schedule". Buddha Air. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
- ↑ "Schedule Effective from 15 May 2010 to 30 October 2010". Nepal Airlines. Retrieved 7 June 2010.
- ↑ "Destinations". Sita Air. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- ↑ http://www.gunaairlines.com/destination/index.php
- ↑ "Flight Schedule". Tara Air. Retrieved 20 December 2010.
- ↑ "Scheduled flights". Yeti Airlines. Retrieved 6 June 2010.
- ↑ Aviation Safety Network retrieved 18 November 2006
- ↑ Aviation Safety Network retrieved 19 November 2006
External links
Media related to Pokhara Airport at Wikimedia Commons