Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) has signed an agreed minute in 16 June 2018 on matters relating additional air entry points to Nepal. In a meeting held in New Delhi on 20-21 December 2016 between Government of Nepal (GoN) and Government of India (GoI) it was agreed that the matter of additional entry points to Nepal will be resolved in technical level talk between CAAN and AAI.

The meeting of joint technical team between Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and Airports Authority of India (AAI) was conducted in pursuant to the paragraph 7 of joint statement released in 22 May 2018 after the bilateral meeting between Honorable Prime Ministers of both countries.

Nepali side was more focused on two entry points from Onisha (near Mahendra Nagar) and Nepalgunj for international flights inbound from the west and an additional entry point Janakpur for international flights inbound from the east. According to the agreed minute, AAI agreed to examine the possibility of making existing Kathmandu-Mahendranagar-Delhi route bi-directional for low level flights based on safety assessment. AAI agreed to make further examination of air entry point from Mahendranagar and Nepalgunj for high level over-flights inbound from west by September 2018.

For additional entry point to international flights inbound from east, since the route R325 (Janakpur to Calcutta) and route A467 (Biratnagar to Calcutta) are already bi-directional in India side, it was agreed that CAAN will make these routes bidirectional in Nepal’s side. Both sides will amend existing Letter of Agreement (LoA) to incorporate these two routes for inbound flights after conducting safety assessment.

India side also agreed to make existing unidirectional route G335 (Kathmandu- Janakpur- Patna) bi-directional and Letter of Agreement (LOA) will be amended after safety assessment by both parties. Low level entry route from Mahendranagar in the west and entry points from Biratnagar and Janakpur in the east will also facilitate cross border flights between two countries.

Besides, AAI agreed to extend technical cooperation to CAAN in the field of air space restructuring and implementation of Air Traffic Flow Management. AAI also expressed to extend necessary cooperation for use of GAGAN system for the mutual benefits of both the countries.  Both Authorities agreed the need for a high-level agreement for technical cooperation to extend support and cooperation for training, technology transfer, etc in the various technical matters.