Why every Everest trekker flies to Lukla from Manthali this autumn, not Kathmandu

Flights & Access From 25 September to 30 November 2026, Everest flights leave from Manthali, not Kathmandu. Why, what the pre-dawn drive involves, and the buffer days… By Anjali Shrestha · Jul 30, 2026 Read the full story

Lukla's Tenzing-Hillary Airport is famous as the world's most dangerous, a single sloped runway cut into a mountainside at 2,860 metres with a cliff at one end and a rock wall at the other. It is the gateway almost every Everest trekker flies through. Yet for… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

When the diversion runs

From 25 September to 30 November 2026 , Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority (CAAN) is again routing every scheduled Lukla flight away from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport and onto a small regional strip at Manthali, in Ramechhap district around 132km… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

Why Manthali and not Kathmandu

The stated reason is congestion, and the weather is what makes the congestion bite. Kathmandu's morning haze and rising afternoon cloud narrow the usable flying window for the small STOL aircraft that serve Lukla, so decades of Everest-bound traffic squeezed… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What the diversion adds to your trip

The diversion adds cost as well as time: the road transfer typically adds a shared jeep or bus fare on top of the standard one-way Lukla airfare, on top of an earlier alarm clock. It is a trade nearly every operator and airline in the Khumbu now treats as… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

What this means for trekkers

Practically, it means your Everest Base Camp trip does not start with a flight, it starts with a pre-dawn drive. Most agencies, ours included, collect trekkers between 1am and 2am for the run east on the BP Highway, aiming to reach Manthali in time for the… Travel Himalaya Nepal · News Read the full story

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