The weather conditions also forced cancellation of over 100 domestic flights to Lukla, Janakpur, Bharatpur and Pokhara and other remote sectors. Normally, over 170 flights are operated every day in the domestic sector.
No flights landed between 9:15 am to 12:00 noon while the weather did not totally affect the departures, a TIA source said.
International carriers—Oman Air, Gulf Air, Spice Jet and China Eastern—were diverted due to the inclement weather. Other carriers—Bahrain Air, Qatar Airways, Jet Airways, Air India, Thai Airways, Fly Dubai—spent more than 45 minutes over the Kathmandu skies before they were allowed to land, Kishore Kumar Khatri, an officer at the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the TIA, said.
According to him, the diverted planes landed late in the afternoon.
UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who was on a Thai Airways plane that was waiting to land at 12:40 pm, was compelled to cancel his party’s Central Committee meeting scheduled at 1:00 pm on Sunday. The aircraft landed at 1:40 pm.
“There was massive congestion after the fog, as there were several flights waiting to land,” Khatri said. “Many of them must have spent more than an hour circling the TIA before they could land,” according to the TIA.
The weather, however, did not affect all departing flights. The TIA reported a 1,600-metre ground visibility early in the morning while it improved to 4,000 metres before noon.
For big aircraft, the normal approach visibility on the ground is 3,200 metres while for smaller planes it is 1,600 metres. Although the TIA had ground visibility of over 3,200 metres before noon, TIA sources said the carriers may have been denied descent due to poor vertical visibility.
The most hit was Pokhara Airport. According to Pokhara Airport Chief Pratap Babu Tiwari, only a single flight of Tara Air was operated on Sunday.
“The airport had 2,500 metre visibility during the day and 3,000 metres in the evening,” Tiwari said. Flights are operated when the visibility is 5,000 metre in Pokhara. However, carriers can take off and land at 2,500-metre visibility by applying special visual flights rules. “However, flights normally do not apply the special visual flights rules due to safety concerns.” The tourist hotspot witnesses over 38 flight movements a day.
On Sunday, Yeti Airlines cancelled 10 flights to Pokhara and one to Tumlingtar. Tara Air, the subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, cancelled 15 flights to Lukla, five to Jomsom and one each to Lamidanda and Faflu.
Similarly, Buddha Air suspended six flights and Guna Air cancelled five flights to Pokhara. Agni Air reported five cancellations to Pokhara and two flights to Lukla.
Sources the Kathmandu Post