Flying to Nepal

General Information

While Nepal has over sixty airports, only three are of any significant standard. Even then, if you exclude those in Pokhara and Siddharthanagar due to limited traffic, only Kathmandu’s airport plays a major role, with domestic connections, flights to the rest of Asia, and the Middle East. All this serves around 9 million passengers annually.

That said, many other towns have small airports or airstrips for domestic flights, or even on-demand services for trekkers and climbers heading to remote regions of the country.

Local Airlines

Nepal has a relatively high number of airlines, largely because the mountainous terrain makes overland travel slow and difficult.

Generally, these airlines share a few traits: they’re all small, operating modest fleets of low-capacity aircraft primarily on domestic and short-haul routes. Most notably, they’re all on the European Union’s Blacklist of banned airlines due to safety concerns. This means they’re prohibited from flying in European airspace and can’t be sold by EU-registered travel agencies. It’s worth keeping this in mind if you plan to use them for travel within the country.

Among them, three stand out: the national carrier Nepal Airlines, with around forty routes across the country, Asia, and the Middle East, as well as Buddha Air and Himalaya Airlines, though their networks are more limited.

From France and Elsewhere

There are no direct flights to Nepal from France, Europe, Africa, Oceania, or the Americas. Only Asia—logically including India—and the Middle East, along with Istanbul, offer connections via local or Nepali airlines. Gulf carriers and Turkish Airlines are often popular choices for reaching Nepal from Europe, offering good value. Alternatively, you could transit through India before continuing to Nepal.

In general, expect to pay between 700 and 1,000 € for a decent option, with a total travel time of at least 13 or 14 hours, including layovers.

Additional Information