Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport Halts Flights After Runway Lighting Failure
Technical glitch halts all flights at Nepal's main hub.
Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport, the nation's primary gateway for air travel, experienced a complete suspension of flight operations on Saturday evening due to a critical technical malfunction in the runway's airfield lighting system. The disruption, detected at 5:30 PM local time, has stranded at least five aircraft on the tarmac and delayed all incoming and outgoing flights, both domestic and international, affecting thousands of passengers amid peak evening traffic.
Airport spokesperson Renji Sherpa confirmed the issue in statements to media outlets, noting that the lighting failure rendered safe takeoffs and landings impossible under fading daylight conditions. Technical teams were immediately mobilized to diagnose and repair the system, with airport authorities estimating a resolution within hours, though no firm timeline has been provided as engineers work around the clock to avert prolonged chaos.
The halt has rippled across regional routes, grounding flights to and from major Indian cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, as well as international connections to Bangkok, Doha, and Dubai. Stranded travelers reported frustration over limited updates and makeshift accommodations, while airlines issued apologies and vouchers for essentials, urging patience as diversions to alternative airports like Biratnagar were considered for urgent cases.
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This incident follows closely on the heels of a major outage at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport the previous day, where a 15-hour glitch in the air traffic control's automatic message switching system disrupted over 800 flights and exposed vulnerabilities in South Asia's aviation infrastructure. Experts attribute such breakdowns to aging equipment and underinvestment in upgrades, raising alarms about the reliability of high-volume hubs handling millions annually.
As repair efforts intensify, Tribhuvan officials have assured full transparency and compensation where applicable, while calling on passengers to monitor airline apps for real-time alerts. The episode underscores the fragility of global travel networks, where a single technical fault can cascade into widespread inconvenience, prompting calls for accelerated modernization across the region's airports.
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