The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal says the next phase of the runway upgrade at Dhangadhi airport is due to begin, with night-landing capability the objective.
Dhangadhi is the busiest airport in Sudurpaschim, serving passengers from Kailali, Kanchanpur and the hill districts. Without night-landing capability, all flights must be scheduled in daylight, which limits capacity and makes a weather delay likely to cancel a service rather than postpone it.
Airline operators say the constraint is commercial as well as practical: a single daylight window forces the same aircraft to compete for the same slots across several destinations.
Local business groups have long argued that the airport is the province's most consequential piece of infrastructure, on the grounds that it takes a full day to reach Kathmandu by road.
