April 28: A plane of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) made a successful test flight at Gulmi-based Resunga Airport at 7:39 am on Friday.    
The NAC plane with call sign 9N-ABT departed from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Kathmandu, and landed at Resunga Airport located at Simichaur of Resunga Municipality-10 in Gulmi.    
The NAC conducted the test flight as a preparation to launch commercial flights as per the agreement reached between the NAC and the municipality.    
Spokesperson for the Nepal Airlines Operators Association, Yograj Kandel, said that plans are afoot for the commercial flights after the successful test flight. He said that the NAC will begin commercial flight after carrying out an assessment from a technical team.    
According to Kandel, the travel fare and the number of passenger in a flight would be determined after the study.

"The air fare could be around Rs 6,000 per person for Resunga-Kathmandu flight," he added.    
Captain Manish Bista of NAC said that regular flights would be conducted after submitting the flight report to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) within a week.    
The construction of the airport was completed some months ago 16 years after othe commencement of the work. Built with an investment of Rs 330 million, the airport's runway is 520 metres long and 20 metres wide. Located at an elevation of 1,526 metres above the sea level, the airport is spread over 156 ropanis of land.    
After the successful test flight, Mayor of Resunga Municipality Khildhowj Panthi expressed his happiness stating that the dream of the locals to travel to Kathmandu by plane is being materialised soon. -- RSS