Kathmandu, July 24

Around 70 per cent of domestic flights were affected today due to the continuous rainfall since morning.

According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the flights from all domestic airports, except for Bhairahawa, Dhangadi and Nepalgunj, was halted completely in the morning.

As per TIA, flights to Pokhara, Bhadrapur, Tumlingtar, Rajbiraj, Bharatpur, and Dang were cancelled.

Similarly, towards the rural areas, flight operations of airports in Lukla, Bhojpur, Dolpa, Mustang, Manang, Humla, Jumla, Rara, Ramechhap and Khotang were halted completely.

In the late afternoon, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Lukla and Surkhet airports resumed its services, said Pratap Babu Tiwari, spokesperson for the TIA.

As per him, low visibility due to the bad weather and inundated runway of the domestic airports left a number of passengers stranded.

Likewise, the mountain flights being operated from TIA were also affected this morning.

Currently, nine airline companies and 10 helicopter operators are conducting regular flights to various domestic destinations from TIA.

Among them, Buddha Air operates around 60 flights a day at the moment, while Yeti Airlines operates around 50 flights a day.

Similarly, Shree Airlines operates around 20 domestic flights. Meanwhile, Tara Air, Sita Air and Summit Air along with other air service providers have been operating around a total of 35 flights a day.

According to TIA, since the onset of monsoon, around 200 domestic flights have been affected till date. TIA sees around 300 domestic flights per day during normal times.

Besides, no international flights from and to TIA were affected due to the rainfall today, Tiwari informed.

Currently, around 29 international airline companies and three Nepali airline companies are conducting international flights from TIA.