Nepal earthquake: Air services resumed to Kathmandu

NEW DELHI: Air services to Kathmandu today resumed though the airport in the quake-hit Nepalese capital had to be shut down for several hours in the afternoon due to a powerful aftershock.

While national carrier Air India operated only two flights out of the five services it had planned to fly and cancelled the remaining three, private carriers SpiceJet, IndiGo and Jet Airways operated their services later in evening.

SpiceJet said it operated two flights from Delhi including the one which it had flown in the afternoon to Kathmandu but returned after the airport shut operations due to the aftershocks, following the resumption of operations at the Tribhuvan International Airport airport.

IndiGo's flight from Delhi to Kathmandu had also failed to land due to the airport closure and retruned to the IGI airport here.

"The flight took off again in evening," IndiGo president Aditya Ghosh said.

"Jet Airways operated three flights to Kathmandu today. While the Delhi-Kathmandu-Delhi was flown as per the schedule, another flight to the Nepalese capital was held up at Delhi because of the airport closure and non availability of parking stands at the airport there," a Jet Airways spokesperson said.

During this period, the airline's flight from Mumbai for Kathmandu was diverted to Lucknow, he said, adding, this flight was brought to Delhi and flew to Kathmandu later on.

Air India was able to operate two flights in the morning, one each from Delhi and Kolkata with 118 and 45 passengers on board. The two flights returned with 135 and 45 passengers, an Air India spokesperson said.

Air India operates three services to Kathmandu including two daily services from the national capital. The Kolkata-Kathmandu-Kolkata flight is, however, operated four times a week.