Flights affected at Nepal’s TIA due to bad weather

Kathmandu - Flights at Tribhuvan International Airport were affected on Thursday due to bad weather and poor visibility.

According to airport officials, visibility dropped below 2,000 meters, forcing three international and one domestic flight to be diverted to alternative destinations.

An Air India flight from New Delhi was diverted to Lucknow, while a wide-body Nepal Airlines aircraft arriving from Doha, Qatar, was redirected to New Delhi. Similarly, a Sichuan Airlines flight from Chengdu, China, returned to China after experiencing a technical problem, an airport official said. An IndiGo flight from Delhi to Kathmandu was also diverted back to India.

On the domestic front, a Shree Airlines flight from Surkhet to Kathmandu was diverted to Bhairahawa.

According to the officials, diversions were mainly caused by adverse weather conditions and low visibility along the air routes.

Tribhuvan International Airport handles around 300 flights daily—both domestic and international—with approximately 30,000 passengers traveling through it. The airport authority said regular flight operations would resume once the weather improves.

Cyclone Montha

Meteorologists said Cyclone Montha, which originated in the Bay of Bengal and made landfall in India’s Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday night, has been affecting Nepal from Thursday.

They have warned of a high chance of heavy rainfall in Madhesh and Koshi provinces on Friday.

“The entire day will be disturbed on Friday and the chance of heavy rainfall in Madhesh and Koshi provinces is very high,” according to the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology.

In Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said  that two people had been killed after Cyclone Montha made landfall in the state. 

Montha, a severe cyclonic storm, weakened into a deep depression after moving inland towards the Andhra Pradesh coast and into adjoining Telangana, allowing state machinery to pivot fully from emergency response to large-scale relief and restoration operations. 

Chief Minister Naidu held a high-level review meeting on Wednesday, instructing officials to continue relief efforts on a war footing for the next two days to provide maximum assistance to affected people.