Getting up close and personal with the mountains
The Everest and Annapurna sightseeing flights are more popular than everThe first-ever Mt Everest sightseeing flight was undertaken in 1933 by a British pilot duo flying from northern Bihar over Nepal in a flimsy Westland Wallace biplane with an open cockpit (below). We have come a long way since then.
The next celebrity was UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld when he visited Nepal in 1961. King Mahendra had just staged his coup and jailed elected Prime Minister B P Koirala, and was cultivating the international community. The king loaned his private DC-3 for the secretary general to get up close and personal with the world’s highest mountain.
Hammarskjöld went back to New York and contributed an article for National Geographic (below) in its January 1961 edition with his black and white photographs of the trip, and possibly launched the first promotion of Everest sightseeing flights.
In 2013, the grandson of Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, the Marquis of Clydesdale, Charles Douglas-Hamilton commemorated the 80th anniversary of the 1933 overflight of Everest by going on a sightseeing flight himself from Kathmandu.
Today, there are dozens of hour-long Everest-view flights every morning from Kathmandu that fly at 24,000ft along the central Himalayan mountains, make a U-turn over Lukla and return. Before Covid, there used to be 30 Everest flights a day from Kathmandu airport.
Buddha Air has the most flights, and leaves aisle seats empty so all passengers have a window seat. This also makes the flight expensive, but most passengers say it is well worth the experience. It is one of the few flights in the world that takes off and lands from the same airport, and the fare is $220 for overseas passengers and Rs14,000 for Nepalis and Indians.
Unlike other flights, where cabin attendants are busy serving food and drinks, on Everest flights they go up and down the aisle pointing out prominent peaks and escorting passengers one by one to the cockpit for better views. That is the other difference: in these flights, passengers are actually allowed into the cockpit. Opinion is divided about which side of the plane offers superior views, but there is a general feeling that the right side is better because the plane is closer to the mountains on the return leg. But this does mean that passengers do not have much of a view during the first half of the flight – unless there are some empty seats on the left side.
The other debate is about whether it is better to sit in front or at the back. The turboprop engines of Buddha's ATR-72s are mounted below the plane’s high wings and are relatively small (compared to the Q400, for instance) so it does not obstruct the horizontal view much. Still, a seat at the back of the plane (#13-16) are best because there is nothing to block the view.
Right after takeoff, the Buddha Air ATR-72-500 makes a wide climbing turn over Kathmandu Valley, and the western Himalaya with Annapurna, Himalchuli, Manaslu heave into view. As the plane sets a northeast heading, out of the left window there is a parade of the central Himalaya peaks: Langtang, Shishapangma, Dorje Lakpa, Phurbi Ghyachu, Gauri Shankar.
The plane gains height, and the pastel plateau of Tibet can be seen behind the mountains. The rivers that flow down from there have carved deep gorges through the mighty mountains. At this point, passengers get 2-3 minutes each in the cockpit, and a clear view of Mt Everest, Lhotse and Makalu silhouetted by the rising sun, and only 30km away to the north.
Far below, in the shadow of surrounding peaks, one can make out Lukla, Namche Bazar and on the horizon, the imposing massif of Cho Oyu and Nepal’s longest glacier, Ngozumba. As the plane turns back, the aircraft is usually abreast of the summit of Numbur which is the same height as the cruising altitude of the plane.
On return, the plane starts descending after Gauri Shankar, but the mountains are usually visible right up to the point where the gears come down and the plane prepares to land back in Kathmandu.
Without having to scale the actual peaks, mountain flights are a fantastic way to take in the breathtaking views of the Himalaya, and one of the most popular activities tourists undertake while in Nepal.
Most flights in Nepal are actually also mountain flights. A Kathmandu to Tumlingtar or Bhadrapur flight on Buddha Air, for example, offers almost the same views. Similarly, flights to Pokhara, Bhairawa, Nepalganj or Dhangadi have a spectacular panorama of the western Himalaya.
Since it began operations 26 years ago this month, Buddha Air has been the domestic airline conducting the most Everest flights. These days, besides its Everest Experience, it also offers the Annapurna Experience and the Kora Experience (see box, below).
Passengers also get a ‘Himalayan Peaks’ map to identify the mountains on this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The Annapurna Experience
Although Mt Everest gets all the attention because it is the highest, the mountains of Central Nepal are equally if not more spectacular, and the sightseeing flights actually fly closer to the massifs of Annapurna, Himalchuli, Manaslu, Machapuchre and Dhaulagiri. This is a 30-minute flight from Kathmandu and lands in Pokhara, and Buddha Air offers charter flights.
The Kora Experience (Everest + Annapurna)
Buddha Air is now also offering a mountain flight combo that combines the Everest and Annapurna experiences, and the name is derived from the Tibetan word ‘Kora’ which is a pilgrimage circumambulation. The charter flights take off from Kathmandu towards Everest, circle back west to Annapurna overflying the Valley, and land back in Kathmandu in a flight lasting 1.5 hours.