Source::The Kathmandu Post
At Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, there has been bidding for a new arrival lounge. The project will be 40 meters long and 24 meters wide and have two 35 meter long baggage conveyor belts. With Kathmandu Airport being prone to chaos and disorder due to severe congestion, this facility will help mitigate new problems.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) on Sunday announced a bid to build a new arrival lounge. With the deadline of March 2 for potential bidders and contractors to submit their proposals and documents. The location for the proposed lot will be the existing domestic taxi parking lot.
While the cost will be fixed after the bidders submit their plans, experts estimate the project to cost about Rs 80 million for the project with the prefab building to be built within this year. Also, this lounge will have the capability of accommodating 200 travellers at a time.
Many have said that domestic travel will intensify with the Pokhara and Bhairahawa International Airport coming online this year. Moreover, while Nepal's international travel has still not recovered, domestic travel has been flourishing with a recorded 3.54 million domestic flyers, the highest number of air travellers ever in Nepal. The increase has been due to the domestic aviation companies targeting the local market by slashing their prices. Statistics have shown that this new boom in domestic travel has even surpassed pre-pandemic domestic travel by about 11.08 per cent.
In 2022, with the re-opening of international travel and easing lockdown restrictions, Nepalese airlines are preparing for another boom. Many predict that the domestic passenger number will hit 4 million this or the next year. To prepare for that boom many airlines have been on an expansion spree to capture the booming market.
Shree Airlines, the largest helicopter operator in Nepal, has delved into fixed-wing aircraft. It had recently bought a Dash 8-Q400 with a total of eight aircraft under their service. They have also announced plans to buy two more Dash 8-Q400 this year. Buddha Air has also been expanding its inventory by purchasing four ATR-72 aircraft. Yeti Airlines has also announced that it is planning to add two ATR-72 aircraft in the future.
Therefore, to handle the extra passenger numbers and the additional aircraft that are coming into operation due to the domestic passenger boom, the arrival lounge is being constructed. The new arrival lounge will be designed to operate until 2028. The lounge will also be the first phase of the Tribhuvan International Master Plan 2026 funded by the Asian Development Bank(ADB).
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