Simara Airport

Simara: the short hop between Kathmandu and the Terai

Simara Airport (IATA SIF, ICAO VNSI) lies in the flat Terai lowlands of southern Nepal, in Bara district, about twenty kilometers north of Birgunj, the busy border town on the road to India. It is a small domestic airport whose one purpose is the twenty-minute flight to Kathmandu: the road between the capital and the Terai winds for six hours or more through the hills, so business travelers, officials and families from Birgunj and the industrial corridor around it fly instead. The radar on this page shows what our data sources report around Simara; the arrivals and departures pages are linked above it.

Airlines and destinations

The domestic airlines of Nepal, Buddha Air, Yeti Airlines and Shree Airlines among them, fly turboprops between Simara and Kathmandu several times a day, with more flights in the dry season and fewer during the monsoon. There are no international services and no connections to other Nepali cities; everything goes through Kathmandu. Simara lies well outside the reach of our own receivers, so the live radar here depends on the data other sources supply, and the arrivals and departures boards are the better guide.

Getting to Birgunj and the border

Taxis and shared jeeps wait outside the small terminal for the half-hour drive down the highway to Birgunj and the Indian border at Raxaul, and the short ride into Simara bazaar and the industrial towns of the corridor. There is no bus service worth planning around. Many passengers are met by company or hotel drivers; agree a fare before you set off if you take a taxi, as meters are not used.

Good to know

The terminal is a single small building with one check-in area and one gate; arrive an hour ahead, because the flights are small and leave when they are full and the weather allows. Fog in winter mornings and monsoon rain in summer regularly delay or cancel the Kathmandu flights, and tickets are often rebooked onto the next departure. Foreign visitors need a Nepali visa, available on arrival at the international airports and the land border but not at Simara itself. The international gateway is Kathmandu Tribhuvan, and for the Lumbini pilgrimage sites Gautam Buddha at Bhairahawa is the airport to use. Every airport we track is listed in the airport overview.