Nepal bans all widebody aircraft from Kathmandu citing runway issues

                                  AirAsia X Airbus A330-300

AirAsia X along with Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Dragonair, Korean Air, PIA - Pakistan International Airlines, Thai Airways International and Turkish Airlines will be the most severely affected airlines of a ban on the use of wide-body aircraft at Kathmandu issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) on Monday, August 18 and set to come into effect in September. 

According to the CAAN, the restriction is currently expected to affect all major airlines who operate wide-body aircraft to the Himalayan kingdom between September and November this year. 

The announcement was made after cracks started to appear in the 3'050m-long runway 02/20 causing a number of international flights to be delayed, diverted or cancelled in the past few weeks. 

CAAN said that a Spanish company has been enlisted to study the runway's capacity and condition, and is scheduled to submit its report within the next few weeks. Repair of the runway will be done based on the report, but until then, the runway will remain closed to all wide-body aircraft.

Source: CH-Aviation