May 22, Chitwan – Buddha Air has suspended its flight operations between Bharatpur in Chitwan and Pokhara in Kaski. According to Bhakta Basnet, the Bharatpur station manager for Buddha Air, the flight service has not been operational for the past month. Basnet explained that the suspension is due to a significant decline in passenger numbers between Pokhara and Bharatpur, increased fares, and improvements to the Pokhara–Muglin road section.
Station manager Basnet further stated that there is little likelihood of resuming flights even if there is a group traveling to Pokhara or coming to Chitwan. “The service was operated for some time, but the aircraft were often flying nearly empty,” he added. “Both Pokhara and Bharatpur are tourist destinations, and the flights were intended to target tourists, but the service did not achieve the expected success.”
Buddha Air had launched flights between Bharatpur and Pokhara on September 15, 2017, following strong requests from tourism and hotel business stakeholders in both regions. Its aircraft regularly operated between the two cities. The initiation of this flight service coincided with expansion work on the Muglin–Narayangarh and Ambukhaireni–Pokhara roads, which had made road travel between Bharatpur and Pokhara more difficult at that time. However, now that these road sections have been improved, most travelers have begun opting for road transportation. Travel time from Bharatpur to Pokhara by private vehicle is approximately two and a half hours, and about three hours via public transportation.
