{"id":8974,"date":"2023-10-04T07:08:35","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T07:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=8974"},"modified":"2023-10-04T07:08:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T07:08:35","slug":"india-china-feud-keeps-international-planes-out-of-nepal-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=8974","title":{"rendered":"India-China feud keeps international planes out of Nepal airport"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Aviation news international – The bright orange hotel sticks out as far as the eye can see – but unfortunately for its owner Bishnu Sharma, there is hardly anyone there to see it.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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His hotel offers breath-taking mountain views from the town of Lumbini in Nepal – Buddha’s birthplace.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But a hoped-for surge in tourist numbers has failed to materialise, blamed in part on tensions between Nepal’s giant neighbours India and China.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Lumbini saw close to a million visitors in 2022, according to the Lumbini Development Trust – and it was this number the government was betting on when it spent $76m (\u00a361m) to build the Gautam Buddha International Airport, which opened in May last year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Domestic tourists make up most of the visitors, with just less than a third travelling from neighbouring India.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The terminal, also known as Bhairahawa Airport, lets tourists fly directly to Lumbini instead of travelling 250km (155 miles) by land from the capital, Kathmandu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Yet the anticipated travel boom never materialised, something travel industry experts attribute to a lack of early promotion and incentives to international airlines.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“The government asked us to expand tourism infrastructure saying more international flights would come. But my hotel is two-thirds empty. I am now struggling to repay my loan,” Mr Sharma tells the BBC, adding that he is millions of rupees in debt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Star<\/picture><\/span>IMAGE SOURCE,<\/span>BBC\/ANBARASAN ETHIRAJAN<\/span><\/div>
Image caption,<\/span><\/p>\n
Businesses in Lumbini, like the Holiday Star Hotel, have hoped for a flood of tourists<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Travel industry experts argue tourist arrivals, particularly from overseas, will go up if there are regular scheduled international flights operating out of Bhairahawa airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But Nepali officials say Delhi has refused to allow big passenger planes to fly west through its airspace – meaning planes cannot fly over India to reach the Gautam Buddha airport. Access to Indian airspace would mean shorter flights at lower cost.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Some in Nepal also believe that Delhi is wary of the fact that the Gautam Buddha airport was constructed by China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The airport is also located near Nepal’s border with India –\u00a0west of where the two Asian giants’ troops clashed last December in the Arunachal Pradesh region<\/a>, just seven months after the terminal opened to international traffic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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