Domestic flights: how they really work, and how to not miss your flight home

Why they cancel

Mountain airstrips need visibility. Cloud in the valley, cloud at the destination, or wind above limits means no flight, and the decision is made in the morning, sometimes repeatedly through it.

Wind builds through the day almost everywhere in Nepal, so early flights are far more reliable than late ones. The first departures of the day get out; the afternoon ones are the first to be dropped. When a day is lost, the backlog rolls into the next day, and passengers already booked for that day take priority. One weather day can therefore cost two or three days of movement in peak season.

Lukla, specifically

Lukla is the Everest gateway and the most disrupted airstrip in the country. In the busiest months flights frequently operate from Ramechhap rather than Kathmandu, which means a four to five hour pre-dawn drive to catch a twenty-minute flight.

That surprises people who booked expecting to fly from the capital. Confirm which airport your ticket uses with whoever booked it — this is the most common unpleasant surprise in Nepali trekking logistics.

Helicopter transfers exist as an expensive fallback when fixed-wing is backed up, and they are the reason a lot of trekkers make their international flights. They are also weather-dependent.

Jomsom and the others

Jomsom flies from Pokhara through the Kali Gandaki gorge, takes about twenty minutes, and is spectacular. It is also wind-limited and generally only operates in the morning, because the gorge wind is ferocious from late morning.

Bharatpur for Chitwan and Bhairahawa for Lumbini are lowland strips and considerably more reliable.

Kathmandu to Pokhara is the most robust route in the country and still goes down in winter fog. The bus is six to eight hours and always runs.

The rules to build an itinerary on

Never book an international flight for the day after a trek involving a mountain flight ends. Two spare days is the standard advice and it exists because people have missed a great many flights home.

Keep the last two nights flexible and in a city, not on a trail.

Baggage on the small aircraft is capped hard. On the Lukla run every airline works to the same figure — 15 kg in total, split as 10 kg in the hold and 5 kg of hand luggage — and it is weighed at check-in, not waved through. Excess is charged by the kilo and on a full flight in season it can simply be refused, which is how people end up leaving things behind at the airport.

Pack the duffel to ten and keep the daypack honest, and you will not have a conversation about it. A suitcase does not fit that shape at all, which is another reason to leave yours in Pokhara or Kathmandu. Other mountain strips are broadly similar though the numbers vary, so ask us for the allowance on your specific flight rather than assuming Lukla's applies everywhere.

Carry your important documents and medication in your daypack, not the hold. Bags occasionally travel on a later flight than their owner.

What we do when it goes wrong

Rebook you on the next available departure, which usually means being at the airport very early the following morning rather than waiting for a phone call.

Look at the alternatives honestly: a jeep instead of the Jomsom flight, a helicopter share out of Lukla, or a changed route. Sometimes the answer is a long drive and it is better than three days of waiting. And tell you early if we think you should give up on a flight and start moving overland, because that decision gets worse the longer it is left.

Walk it with us

Private departures on your dates, guided by the people who wrote this page.

Questions we get asked

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