POKHARA:- Representatives of Fly Dubai and Pokhara-based tourism entrepreneurs met on Sunday to explore measures for the sustainability of the Pokhara-Dubai flight service.
Flights on the Pokhara-Dubai route are scheduled to begin on September 23.
During the meeting held with office-bearers of the Pokhara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Restaurant and Bar Association (REBAN) Pokhara, Fly Dubai’s Nepal General Manager Nawaraj Shahi shared about the progress made to make the flight service durable and reliable.
As he highlighted, support from locals and stakeholders is vital for the sustainability of the flight service. According to him, the service directly connects Pokhara with various international destinations such as London, New York, and Tokyo.
During the meeting, President of the Pokhara Chamber of Commerce and Industry Gokarna Karki pledged that the private sector will lend all possible support to make international flights from Pokhara sustainable.
It is noted that the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal had last month granted permission to Fly Dubai to operate Dubai-Pokhara-Dubai flights on a daily basis.
In the meantime, Fly Dubai has already unveiled its flight schedule along the route.
The government had announced in its policy and programme for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84 that diplomatic initiatives would be explored to attract international airline providers to Pokhara International Airport, and Fly Dubai had received flight permission shortly after.
Amidst these developments, tourism entrepreneurs here are hopeful that once the flights begin, a significant number of foreign visitors will arrive here.
So far, the Pokhara International Airport operates no regular international flights, except chartered services to and from a few countries.
The airport was built with a loan of around Rs 22 billion. Since its inauguration on January 1, 2023, its regular flights have been limited to domestic operations.