Palungtar Airport also known as Gorkha Airport, was an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface ...

serving the

municipalities A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Palungtar Palungtar( is a municipality in Gorkha District in Gandaki Province, central Nepal. It is made up of the seven former Village Development Committees Aanppipal, Chyangli, Dhuwakot, Gaikhur, Khoplang, Mirkot and Palumtar. It lies on the bank ...

and

Gorkha The Gurkhas or Gorkhas (), with endonym Gorkhali ), are soldiers native to the Indian Subcontinent, chiefly residing within Nepal and some parts of Northeast India. The Gurkha units are composed of Nepalis and Indian Gorkhas and are recruit ...

Gorkha District Gorkha District ( ne, गोरखा जिल्ला ), a part of Gandaki Province, is one of the 77 districts of Nepal, which is the fourth largest district (by area) of Nepal and connected historically with the creation of the modern Nep ...

in the Southern region of

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ne, गण्डकी प्रदेश ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borde ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

History

The airport was originally opened in October 1960. it is currently out of operation, for which the District of Gorkha has no active airport as of 2018. It used to serve as a main tourist gateway to the former royal city of Gorkha and its palaces, but lost importance after the area received road connectivity, namely Prithivi Highway. Despite out of operation, the airport served as a major landing site for helicopters distributing relief material after the

Gorkha earthquake The April 2015 Nepal earthquake (also known as the Gorkha earthquake) killed 8,964 people and injured 21,952 more. It occurred at on Saturday, 25 April 2015, with a magnitude of 7.8 Mw or 8.1 Ms and a maximum Mercalli Intensity of X (''Extreme ...

in 2015.

Facilities

The airport resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vert ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. ...

. It had one grass/clay runway which is in length.

Former airlines and destinations

Until 1979,

Nepal Airlines Nepal Airlines Corporation ( ne, नेपाल वायुसेवा निगम, Nepāl Vāyusevā Nigam, Nepal Air Service Corporation), formerly known as Royal Nepal Airlines ( ne, शाही नेपाल वायुसेवा, ...

operated several routes from the airport.

References

{{authority control Defunct airports in Nepal Buildings and structures in Gorkha District Airports established in 1960 1960 establishments in Nepal