Gelephu Airport
Gelephu Airport | |||||||||||
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Public | ||||||||||
| Operator | Department of Civil Aviation | ||||||||||
| Location | Gelephu District | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 984 ft / 300 m | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 26°52′07″N 090°27′55″E / 26.86861°N 90.46528°E | ||||||||||
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  Gelephu Airport Location within Bhutan | |||||||||||
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| Runways | |||||||||||
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Gelephu Airport (IATA: GLU, ICAO: VQGP) is located in Samtenling Gewog, about three kilometres from Gelephu town in Sarpang District, Bhutan. The airport has been constructed on an area spanning over 500 acres but is not yet in use. It is one of only four airports in Bhutan.
History
The airport was inaugurated in October 2012,[3] but has not yet established scheduled operations due to its lack of certification from the Department of Civil Aviation of Bhutan.[4] The airport was originally planned as an international airport but the plan was shelved in 2008.[5] In January 2015, The Department of Civil Aviation told Kuensel that the airport had been closed to scheduled flights due to the need to construct a new terminal building and control tower. A spokesperson said that it was hoping the new structures would be completed in February 2015, and that "Then from our side it’ll be open to scheduled flights."[6] Despite this, it was reported that Drukair was not aware of the airport's reopening and stated that it would not launch commercial flights until it had studied the market conditions to ensure scheduled operations were viable.[6]
Airlines and destinations
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Druk Air | Jakar, Paro[7] |
See also
References
- ^ "VQGP - Gelephu Domestic Airport - SkyVector". skyvector.com. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ "GeoNames". geonames.org. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ https://www.littlebhutan.com/blogs/gelephu-airport-inaugurated.html
- ^ "Gelephu airport – Inaugurated but not 'ready'". KuenselOnline. Retrieved 12 December 2014.
- ^ Tenzing Lamsang (9 October 2008). "Gelephu Int'l Airport – Now A Domestic One". Kuensel. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
- ^ a b Dorji, Gyalsten (2 January 2015). "Gelphu airport to open next month". KuenselOnline. Retrieved 3 January 2015.
- ^ http://airlineroute.net/2016/01/14/kb-glu-dec15/