Over the last two days, Nepal has been boiling, especially Kathmandu, where many protesters were killed and things were not yet controlled, even though a handful of ministers resigned and what began as a demonstration against the ban on social media has quickly changed to much larger protests.
Read also: Nepal Protest: The Crackdown Gen will reopen over the ban on social media, the three ministers resign; 19 dead in violence
Protests have now been more serious with Kathmandu Airport with the closure of traffic. The largest airport in Nepal stopped the operation without any warning only with a statement from the Civil Aviation Office of Nepal. There is no formal notam (announcement for pilots) without continuing to divert flights and hold in the Indian sky.
What’s the matter?
Kathmandu, the largest airport in Nepal and serving the capital, has been closed for operations, now does not allow any landing, because the protests will reach the airport area, according to unconfirmed reports. Since the last minute decision was the last minute, flights were linked to Kathmandu before entering the valley for a long time over India. Kathmandu is considered one of the difficulty airports and in the past has recorded its fair share of accidents due to terrain around the airport.
When the airport was suddenly closed, there were more than 10 flights in the air, two of which were home flights in Nepal. Kathmandu was also flying two Indian carriers, while Air India flew from Delhi and Indiga from Bombai. Air India returns to Delhi, while Indigo also diverts to Delhi. Indigo also had his flight to Delhi-Kathmandu in the air that diverted to Lucknow.
Flights from Qatar Airways, Flybai, Thai Lion, Thai Airassia and Biman Bangladesh tied to Kathmandu are also forced to divert with Qatar Airways and Biman Bangladesh, returning to origin, each other carrier diverting to India.
International diversion challenges
While the diversions are standard, the departure of the international flight leads to other challenges for both airlines and passengers. On the years Air India and Indigo will not be passengers who connect from other international destinations, allowed to move from the airport if they do not have an Indian visa. There could be a large number of such people for these years. On the other hand, years from Thailand or Dubai, which diverted to India, have very limited chances of passengers with Indian visas. At such times, the airlines and passengers look at a longer turnover based on pilot flights and available ground infrastructure. It remains unclear when Kathmandu Airport opens for operation.
India-Napal Connectivity
According to data shared by Cirium, airlines, there are 104 weekly flights between India and Nepal. Of these 104, Indian carriers are operated up to 84 flights a week. There are 15 flights between the two countries on Tuesday, with Indigo running a daily flight from Bombai and three times a day from Delhi, while Air India works six times a day from Delhi. Air India Express and Spicejet operate the daily flight from Bengalur and Delhi. None of the Indian carriers has its aircraft at Kathmandu airport, shows data from Flightradar24 from monitoring flights.
What to do next?
Kathmandu is one of the popular tourist destinations and is attractive to trekkers around the world. Since Nepal is for Indians without visas, it is also a quick gate for the Indians. As ground situations evolve, it will dictate when the airport operation opens and what happens there afterwards. If Bangladesh is an example to go through, air connectivity will be affected after such protests. India-Bangladesh connectivity has to return to levels before the Sheikh Hasina government was overthrown on protests with the street.
Both Air India and Indigo today canceled the rest of the flights according to their website.
(Tagstotranslate) Nepalese unrest
