Seven of the 10 districts of Karnali Province have airports. While Dailekh, Salyan and Jajarkot do not have airports, Surkhet, Kalikot, Humla, Jumla and Mugu have one each, and Dolpa and Rukum West have two each. However, only a very few of the airports are operational. Some are awaiting reconstruction, while others have not been upgraded.
Surkhet Airport in Birendranagar, the provincial capital, has also not been upgraded.

There has been controversy over the expansion of this airport for a long time. Sometimes due to internal fighting between political leaders, sometimes due to obstacles from locals, this airport has not been able to change its face. The ministerial decision made by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation on Falgun 15 has again sparked controversy at Surkhet Airport. A budget of Rs 100 million has been allocated under the Surkhet Airport Expansion Plan in the current fiscal year.

Funds have been demanded to relocate the Land Authority and Amarjyoti Secondary School located north of the airport, to be implemented within the current fiscal year. It is estimated that a budget of about 5 billion rupees will be required for this.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has written to the Ministry of Finance to arrange additional budget for the three airports recommended by the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority. A demand has been made for ensuring a source of 4.9 billion rupees to proceed with the work of expanding the three airports in the current fiscal year. However, the work has not been completed.

Jumla Airport in Karnali is also awaiting upgrading. The operating airport is facing a lack of budget from the Land Authority to expand the runway. It is estimated that 440 million rupees will be spent on acquiring 183.05 ropanis of land for the airport expansion, making the total airport expansion one billion rupees.

Since the runway of this airport, which is crowded with passengers, is short, only 18 and 19-seater aircraft take off and land. The federal government has allocated 100 million rupees in the current fiscal year for land acquisition. Mugu’s Talcha Airport is also facing a lack of infrastructure. Since it is an airport connected to Rara Lake, the passenger traffic here is increasing. However, this airport is at risk due to its physical infrastructure. Meanwhile, three airports built at a cost of crores of rupees are in a state of disuse. Apart from test flights, commercial flights have not been possible at Suntharali Airport, built in Kotbada, Narharinath Rural Municipality-1, Kalikot. The airport, which was built in 2042 BS and completed in 39 years, has now become a playground for locals.

When Jeevan Bahadur Shahi was the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation of the Government of Nepal, a test flight was conducted at this airport for the first time on 29 Magh 2073 BS. Then on 14 Falgun 2080 BS, a team including the then Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Purna Bahadur Khadka, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sudan Kiranti, the then Chief Minister of Karnali Rajkumar Sharma, and former Chief Ministers Mahendra Bahadur Shahi and Jeevan Bahadur Shahi inaugurated the airport by landing two aircraft of Nepal Airlines and Tara Air. But since then, no flights have been conducted at this airport.

Meanwhile, the situation at Chaurjahari Airport in Rukum West is no different from that of Kalikot. The airport has been closed for six years, and citizens of Jajarkot, Salyan, and Rukum West, among others, have not been able to get air service. The closed airport has not been operational since 2075 BS.
This airport, built at a cost of 55.949 million rupees in 2072 BS, is now overgrown with grass. Even though the construction of the Masinechaur Airport in Dolpa has been completed, not even a test flight has been carried out.

The situation is similar at the Jufal Airport in Dolpa. Although the construction of the airport began in 2066 BS and was completed in 2068 BS, no planes are coming to the airport. As a result, the airport has become unused.