The sole airport in Dang, Tarigaon, again suffered a closure.
On January 13, Tulsipur Sub-metropolitan City had reached an agreement with Summit Air to operate flights from the airport. As per the agreement, one-way airfare for Dang-Kathmandu was Rs 7,200 per person.
However, the Sub-Metropolis left coordination after the Air increased airfare by 2,680 one-way per ticket citing increment in fuel prices, causing flight discontinuation.
While the Air was agreed upon operating flights twice a week (Sunday and Wednesday), the flight operation was reduced to only once a week (Sunday) lately.
The Air could not operate flights on May 27 and June 3 for want of passengers.
"On last Sunday, nine passengers had booked tickets for Kathmandu. But the booking was cancelled after the Air told that it could not operate a flight at an old fare rate," said information officer at the Sub-Metropolis Jharendra Kharel.
The Air cancelled flights three times in the past six months, he said.
Irregular flights and expensive fare are some factors to overcome to continue flights.
Mayor of the Sub-Metropolis Ghana Shyam Pandey said that the airline would be requested to reconsider the flight closure, saying the flight closure is against the agreement.
"The airfare was increased without informing us. We are coordinating with the airline to negotiate for the old fare rate," he said.
Established in 2011 B.S., and formally came into operation in 2016 B.S., the airport has seen a repeated closure since so far.
Earlier before the local level elections, the Tulsipur Chamber of Commerce and Industry had operated flights from the airport in coordination with a private airplane company only to be halted due to various reasons.
