Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) on Monday refused to allow a Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) flight bound for New Delhi to take off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), leaving 254 passengers stranded, as its flight was not scheduled for the day, news agency PTI reported.
Officials said on Tuesday that the reason for the cancellation of clearance for the aircraft was to put pressure on the national flag airline to relocate some of its foreign flights to the new Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) to reduce congestion, Tribhuvan International Airport spokesperson Teknath Sitaula said.
The flight was cancelled after passengers were issued boarding passes, he stated further.
"The NAC had clearance to take off for New Delhi during the morning schedule but was not permitted to conduct the afternoon flight. Despite the fact that NAC officials knew there was no flight scheduled in the afternoon, they did not inform passengers, but rather distributed boarding passes to them," PTI quoted the official as saying.
According to a CAAN official, the regulatory body has reduced the number of NAC flights to New Delhi from TIA to 10 from 14 per week starting Monday.
According to the official, the NAC was told to conduct at least one flight to/from Gautam Buddha International Airport at Bhairahawa for every three flights running at TIA in order to manage existing aviation traffic at TIA and effectively utilise the new airport.
CAAN has sent repeated circulars to airline firms requesting that they conduct their flights from Bhairahawa due to traffic congestion at TIA, but the companies have refused, official stated further.
"With the start of the winter schedule from October 30 till March 25 of 2023, CAAN has directed them to conduct one flight from GBIA per three flights from TIA," the official said, PTI reported.
(With Inputs From PTI)