Bharatpur Airport

Bharatpur: the airport for Chitwan National Park

Bharatpur Airport (IATA BHR, ICAO VNBP) lies in the center of Bharatpur, the fast-growing city in Chitwan district in southern Nepal, on the edge of the Terai plains. It is a domestic airport with one role for visitors: the quick way to Chitwan National Park, Nepal's most popular wildlife reserve, whose rhinos, elephants and tigers draw travelers who would otherwise face five or six hours on the highway from Kathmandu. For the people of Chitwan it is the daily link to the capital. The radar on this page shows what our data sources report around Bharatpur; the arrivals and departures pages are linked above it.

Airlines and destinations

Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines and the other Nepali domestic carriers fly turboprops between Bharatpur and Kathmandu several times a day, a flight of about twenty-five minutes, and in the tourist season also to Pokhara, the gateway to the Annapurna trekking region, a short hop over the hills. There are no international flights. Schedules thin out in the monsoon months and change from season to season, and Bharatpur lies well outside the reach of our receivers, so the live radar here depends on other data sources.

Getting to Sauraha and the park

Sauraha, the tourist village at the park entrance, is about twenty kilometers east of the airport, a drive of thirty to forty minutes by taxi or by the jeep your lodge sends to meet you; most Chitwan lodges include the transfer in their packages. Taxis into Bharatpur itself take a few minutes. Local buses run along the highway but are not practical with luggage. The highway to Kathmandu and Pokhara passes through the city, with tourist buses leaving from the bus park.

Good to know

The terminal is a small single building with one check-in hall and a waiting room; arrive an hour before departure, as the flights are small and may leave early when full. Winter fog and summer monsoon rain regularly delay the Kathmandu flights, and the airlines rebook passengers onto the next departure, so avoid tight international connections in Kathmandu on the day you fly out of Chitwan. Visas for Nepal are issued at the international airports and land borders, not here. Kathmandu Tribhuvan is the international gateway, and Pokhara the airport for the Annapurna region. Every airport we track is listed in the airport overview.