Tribhuvan International Airport

Tribhuvan International is Nepal's sole international airport and the dominant aerial gateway to the Himalayas — the entry point for the vast majority of foreign trekkers, climbers, and tourists visiting the country, including the expedition traffic to Everest, Annapurna, Langtang, and the world's other eight-thousand-metre peaks that lie in Nepalese territory. It is named for King Tribhuvan, who restored the Shah monarchy in 1951, and sits on a plateau at 1,338 m (4,390 ft) elevation in the Kathmandu Valley, flanked by 2,000 m+ ridgelines that make approach and departure some of the most demanding in commercial aviation. A single 3,350 m (10,991 ft) asphalt runway supports approximately 69 routes to 41 destinations across 26 airlines. The international terminal serves widebody and narrowbody flights to India (heaviest traffic, with multiple daily services to Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata), the Gulf (where roughly 3M Nepali migrant workers are employed, driving dense schedules via Qatar, Emirates, FlyDubai, Saudia, Etihad, Kuwait Airways, Oman Air, and SalamAir), China, Southeast Asia, Turkey, and Japan. Nepal Airlines operates long-haul 737 and A330 service; Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines, Shree Airlines, and Summit Air operate dense domestic turboprop networks to Lukla (for Everest), Pokhara, Jomsom, and the high-altitude airstrips of the Himalayan foothills. KTM is structurally capacity-constrained — a single runway intersecting tight terrain and a terminal designed for far less traffic produce chronic delays. Two newer domestic airports, Pokhara International (PKR) and Gautam Buddha International (Lumbini, BWA), have opened but have not substantially relieved Kathmandu's pressure because of limited international operations. The airport handled approximately 7M passengers in 2023. It was also notable as a staging airport for humanitarian response operations after the devastating 2015 Gorkha earthquake.