Nepal Just Opened a Second Front Door: Direct Dubai-Pokhara Flights Start September 23, 2026

Starting September 23, 2026, you will be able to fly directly from Dubai to Pokhara — the gateway town for the Annapurna region, Mardi Himal and Poon Hill — without ever landing in Kathmandu. flydubai confirmed the daily service this month, becoming the first UAE carrier to fly direct to Nepal's second city.

This is a bigger deal than a routine route launch. Pokhara International Airport opened on January 1, 2023, a Chinese-built terminal meant to finally give western Nepal a gateway that did not run through the capital. It has struggled since. The airport's first international arrival was not even a scheduled flight — it was a Sichuan Airlines charter from Chengdu that touched down nearly six months later, on June 21, 2023, carrying Chinese athletes for a dragon-boat festival on Phewa Lake. In the two and a half years since, Nepali newsrooms have repeatedly described the terminal as debt-ridden and still waiting for the sustained scheduled international traffic it was built for.

Why flydubai is different

flydubai has flown into Kathmandu since 2009 and has carried close to four million passengers to Nepal over that time — this is not a speculative new entrant. “Nepal has remained an exceptionally important market for flydubai since we first launched operations to Kathmandu in 2009,” said flydubai chairman Ghaith Al Ghaith in the airline's announcement. Senior vice president Sudhir Sreedharan called Pokhara the airline's next step in “our footprint in Nepal with daily operations.”

What it costs

Fares are already listed for booking. A return Economy Lite ticket out of Dubai starts at AED 1,900 (about $517); Business is quoted from AED 5,000 (about $1,362). Flying the other way from Pokhara, fares are listed in Nepali rupees: Economy Lite from NPR 91,000 (about $680), Business from NPR 190,000 (about $1,420).

What this means for trekkers

Tribhuvan International in Kathmandu runs one runway for an entire country's international arrivals, and until now every Annapurna Base Camp, Mardi Himal or Poon Hill trekker landed there first, then either caught a domestic hop or endured a six-to-eight hour mountain drive to Pokhara. From September 23, anyone connecting through the Gulf can skip that step entirely — land in Pokhara, and the Annapurna range is already the view out the window.

We run Annapurna Base Camp, Mardi Himal and Ghorepani-Poon Hill treks that start and end in Pokhara, and this is the most direct route in yet for Gulf-connected trekkers. Whether flydubai holds a daily schedule through a full Nepali monsoon remains to be seen — but for the first time, Pokhara has a real, sustained front door of its own.

Source: flydubai

Cover photo: Jungsik Kwak via Pexels (Pexels License).