Not Just Lukla & Kathmandu: A Brief Guide To Nepal’s Other Main Airports

The aerial gateway to Nepal, that is, the Tribhuvan International Airport, was amidst a veritable grazing field for cows when a Beechcraft first landed here in 1949. Its old name – “Gauchar Airport” – can be broken into two syllables: “gau”- a Sanskrit root word for “cow” and “chaur” referring to a “pasture.” Eyewitnesses and people who used to work in the airport can regale us with stories of times when a cow strike was a persistent threat to airlines’ operations.