Tribhuvan international Airport, Kathmandu- Quick review
It was my first visit to Nepal. Kathmandu is Nepal’s capital
and Tribhuvan International is Nepal’s gateway airport. It is Nepal’s only
international airport (till Pokhara gets ready) and has flights from Dubai,
Istanbul, Doha, Bangkok, Muscat, Delhi and other parts of Asia and Middle East.
This post is a quick brief on Kathmandu Airport and its facilities.
Crowded with limited capacity
- KTM airport departure area has only 5 gates, thus gates get assigned only last minute.
- Even number of baggage belts are limited- expect waiting for around 30-45 mins for your bags to arrive, after you've spent some 30 minutes clearing immigration and security formalities. (of course this time taken is a function of how many simultaneous flights land along with yours)
- Terminal is usually over crowded- needs some waiting/luck to get a seat during rush hour.
- There’s only 1 shop selling some food and snacks in departure area. Absolutely nothing else.
- There’s free WiFi, which is good.
- You can go inside Gate 4 and 5, get some very good closeup view of the aircrafts parked outside.
Arrival: Took about 10 minutes for immigration, another 20-30 mins to clear security. I didn't have check-in bag, which could take another 30 minutes to arrive.
Public transportation: There’s no dedicated buses to/from
Kathmandu airport from city. However if you can walk to main road- about
400-500 meters from airport, then you can get buses to various parts of the
town. Bit difficult to figure out right bus and board, but it is manageable to
some extent. Don’t plan a hotel too far from airport.
Are there hotels nearby?
I could find decent hotels within 2-3 kms from KTM airport. There's no Hyatt or Hilton or Holiday Inn next to the hotel. You've to go into city.
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