Banking News – Fly Dubai’s regular Dubai-Pokhara-Dubai flight, which began last Wednesday, remained encouraging on Saturday, the fourth day of operation. According to Binod Singh Rawat, Information Officer of the airport, the Fly Dubai aircraft, which landed at Pokhara International Airport at 6:05 PM on Saturday with 156 passengers, returned to Dubai from Pokhara with 83 passengers.

Earlier on Thursday, 122 passengers had landed in Pokhara via Fly Dubai from Dubai. 143 passengers had traveled to Dubai from Pokhara on that aircraft. On Friday, the Pokhara-Dubai flight was canceled due to bad weather. On Wednesday, 113 passengers had arrived in Pokhara from Dubai on the first flight. On the return, the aircraft had taken 152 passengers from Pokhara.

Pokhara’s tourism entrepreneurs and related parties, who are committed to making this flight effective and sustainable, are encouraged by the number of passengers in the initial days. Pomnarayan Shrestha, former president of the Pokhara Tourism Council, stated that the initial signal of the Pokhara-Dubai flight is positive and encouraging.

“Passenger bookings are also good, and tours and travel entrepreneurs are happy,” he said. “Hotels and restaurants have introduced discount schemes targeting passengers arriving on this flight.” Airport Information Officer Rawat informed that Fly Dubai’s schedule is to land in Pokhara at 6:15 PM and depart for Dubai at 7:15 PM every day.

Fly Dubai has started the Dubai-Pokhara-Dubai flight with a Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft with a capacity of 165 passengers. Fly Dubai is the first airline company to start regular commercial flights from Pokhara International Airport. Earlier, some airline companies had conducted international charter flights from Pokhara.

With the start of this flight, it has become possible to easily come to Pokhara from many countries around the world using Dubai as a transit point. It is believed that this will provide important support to Pokhara’s tourism, business, employment, and overall economic activities. Regular international flights had not been possible from this airport, which came into operation in January 2023.

Fly Dubai started the flight shortly after the government announced in the current fiscal year’s policy and program that diplomatic initiatives would be taken to attract international airline service providers to Pokhara International Airport. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal had granted permission to Fly Dubai for the Dubai-Pokhara-Dubai flight on Jestha 25 last year.

The government has provided discounts on various fees charged at this airport to attract airline companies for international flights. Parking, landing, and navigation fees at the airport have been completely waived until the end of Bhadau 2085 BS. Similarly, the government has decided to provide a 50 percent discount on ground handling fees.