What has actually flown into Pithoragarh airport, and when the timetable held

Is Pithoragarh airport functional right now?

Naini Saini works as an airport, but its scheduled flights come and go, so check the airline for your own date.

The runway at Naini Saini works, and aircraft have landed on it in several different years. What hasn't held is the timetable.

Pithoragarh got its airstrip in 1991, and scheduled flying arrived much later, in spells. UDAN flights began in January 2019 and were suspended by 2020. A Pawan Hans helicopter ran from August 2022. After that came 19-seaters to Dehradun, and then the big day for the district: Alliance Air's first flight from Delhi, on 7 November 2024.

Read that column of dates in one go and the pattern is plain. A service starts, runs a while, stops, starts again. The Dehradun flight the Chief Minister flagged off on 26 March 2026 had itself been discontinued the previous October, as ThePrint reported it.

Pithoragarh district counted 193,006 tourist arrivals in 2024 and 387,558 in 2025, by the state tourism board's own footfall figures. The traffic is there. The schedule is the fragile part.

Message us with the week you want to travel, and we'll check what's actually flying into Naini Saini for those days.

Does flying in actually save you a day?

Flying saves one road day each way, which matters on short leave, as long as a spare day sits behind the flight.

Count the saving in days, not in kilometres. The same Adi Kailash circuit runs 6 days when you start in Delhi and 4 days when you start in Pithoragarh. The difference is the drive in and the drive out.

By road, Delhi to Pithoragarh is about 480 km. The railheads cut that down, they don't remove it.

Worth it if your leave is short, you're coming from Delhi, and the flight is listed on your date. Not worth it if your return train or connection is fixed and tight, because one cancellation puts about 480 km of road back into the same trip.

Which way round should you book it? Up by air and down by road, if the schedule allows: a flight missed on the way up costs you a day of the trip, a flight missed on the way home costs you the connection out of Delhi. The legs in between run in the same order either way: the road route, leg by leg.

Which airport is closest to Pithoragarh, Dharchula and Munsiyari?

Naini Saini at Pithoragarh is the closest airport for Dharchula, Munsiyari and the Vyas valley, with Pantnagar the plains alternative.

One airport serves this whole corner of Uttarakhand, and it sits at Pithoragarh. Everything beyond it is a road leg. When nothing is flying in, you land at Pantnagar instead, near Haldwani, and drive up from the plains: Haldwani to Pithoragarh is about 185 km.

What is the closest airport to Dharchula?

Naini Saini at Pithoragarh: Dharchula is about 91 km on from the town by road.

Dharchula is where the permit is handed over and where the high-road vehicles are arranged. Pithoragarh stands at 1,645 m. Dharchula, on the river, is at 908 m: from the airport you go down before you go up.

What is the nearest airport to Munsiyari?

Naini Saini again: Munsiyari has no airstrip of its own, and the road from Pithoragarh runs about 125 km.

No flight shortens the Munsiyari leg. It is driven, all about 125 km of it.

Which airport do you use for Adi Kailash?

Pithoragarh: Gunji is about 168 km on from the airport, with the permit checked at Dharchula on the way up.

The road to Adi Kailash begins where your flight ends. Gunji is about 168 km up from Pithoragarh, and the highest nights on the route are at Gunji or Nabi, 3,200 m to about 3,290 m.

Jolingkong lies about 36 km past Gunji, at about 4,500 m. The lake below the mountain is Parvati Sarovar. Travellers take darshan there, at the foot of Adi Kailash.

How do you book a Delhi to Pithoragarh flight, and how often does it run?

The airline fixes the days and sells the seats: Alliance Air's Dehradun service restarted three days a week on 26 March 2026.

You book this flight the way you book any other, on the airline's own site or on any flight search site.

Check three things before you pay. Read the airport's name and address on the page, not just the heading. Check the days of the week, since a three-day-a-week service is easy to misread. And read the cancellation terms, because this service has been withdrawn and restored before.

The aircraft on the restarted Dehradun service seats 42, as ThePrint reported at the flag-off. On a small aircraft the baggage allowance is whatever your ticket prints.

How do you get from the airport to Dharchula, Munsiyari or Gunji?

Everything onward from Naini Saini is a road leg: Dharchula, Munsiyari and Gunji are each a drive from the airport.

From the airport you're in a vehicle, and these are the legs you'll be doing.

• Pithoragarh to Dharchula, about 91 km: the town where the permit is issued.
• Pithoragarh to Munsiyari, about 125 km: the road into the Gori valley.
• Pithoragarh to Gunji, about 168 km: the high road, with the permit checked at Dharchula on the way and a bed at the end of it in Gunji or Nabi.

Start at Pithoragarh and the pickup and drop-off from the town come with it: Adi Kailash, the short route is 4 days at ₹26,000 a person. If you've flown in, that's the plan that fits your tickets best, because it begins and ends in the town your flight lands in.

Send us your flight and where you're going next, and we'll price the transfer in writing.

What happens if the flight is cancelled, and how do you reach Pithoragarh without flying?

A cancelled flight turns into a driving day, and the closest railhead for Pithoragarh is Tanakpur, about 147 km away by road.

Any flight can be cancelled for ordinary reasons: weather at one end or the other, an aircraft held up somewhere else. What matters is what you do that morning.

The road from the plains doesn't stop. Trains get you as far as Tanakpur, and Pithoragarh is about 147 km of road on from there. Start at Kathgodam, next to Haldwani, and that same drive is about 183 km. For Dharchula it's about 238 km from Tanakpur and about 273 km from Kathgodam.

So Tanakpur is nearer. In the end the train you can book picks your railhead, not the kilometres. Buses reach Dharchula from the plains, so ask us on WhatsApp the week you travel.

Whether to keep a spare day at the Pithoragarh end is your call. It costs you a night in a hill town and it buys you the rest of the trip.

Does flying in change the Inner Line Permit day for Adi Kailash?

No: the online application and the Dharchula counter work the same whether you fly into Pithoragarh or drive.

Since 20 February 2025 the application is fully online, on Pithoragarh's own ILP application page. At Dharchula, the SDM (sub-divisional magistrate) signs the permit off. Adi Kailash Explore gets your application in before you reach the hills, and the counter doesn't care whether you flew or drove.

Your side is the paperwork. The portal names each paper and gives you the format to download: a self-declaration affidavit, a fitness certificate signed by a registered medical practitioner, passport photographs, and a government photo ID. For the detail on each, read what the Inner Line Permit asks of you. Requirements can change by season, so check the portal for your own dates.

The altitude is the other thing a flight doesn't change. Pithoragarh is at 1,645 m. You sleep high after that: Gunji at 3,200 m, Nabi a little above it at about 3,290 m. The body wants that climb spread over days whichever way you arrived. If you're carrying a heart, lung or blood-pressure condition, speak to your own doctor before you book the flight or the trip.