Any two landing sites in Nepal
Whole aircraft, your timing
Every licensed operator that can fly this trip will price your dates. You pay nothing until you accept one.
The whole helicopter, between any two places in Nepal, on your own timetable.
This leg is already published as a flight, with typical fares on its page — usually cheaper than chartering the whole helicopter. Your price still comes from the quotes we collect.
© hsvgerrit / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0Point-to-point transfer out of Lukla when the fixed-wing flights are grounded — the most-requested charter in Nepal.
Per person, from
US$599Whole aircraft, from
US$2,600
© Vyacheslav Argenberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0Emergency evacuation from the Khumbu to a Kathmandu hospital. Operators usually fly on medical need; most ask for your insurer's assistance number or a payment guarantee, so call your insurer's assistance line as soon as you can.
Rescue is dispatched by phone, day or night: +977 98 6104 4994
Request a rescueThis leg, chartered
Chartering a whole helicopter from Lukla to Kathmandu and back is about 1.4–1.5 hours on the hour meter: 35–38 minutes in the air each way over 135 km, plus the start-up, taxi and shutdown that block time bills for. At the US$1,800–2,600 an hour operators here quote for a five-seat single, that is roughly US$2,500–3,900 of flying before positioning, ground time and any daily minimum are added. Kathmandu sits at 4,390 ft (1,338 m), where a breath holds 85% of the oxygen it holds at sea level — which is what decides how many of your party the aircraft can lift, not the seat count. Every common charter helicopter type can fly it out and back without a fuel stop.
The distance and air time above are computed from surveyed coordinates — the full Lukla to Kathmandu measurement shows the working. What the height at Kathmandu does to an aircraft is set out on the Kathmandu altitude page. Both ends have their own aerodrome record — Lukla Tenzing-Hillary and Kathmandu Tribhuvan International — with codes, elevation and every route through them.
Asked about this leg
A round trip from Lukla to Kathmandu runs about 1.4–1.5 hours of block time, which at the US$1,800–2,600 hourly band operators on this marketplace quote comes to roughly US$2,500–3,900 of flying. That is the aircraft only. Positioning — bringing the helicopter to Lukla empty if it is based elsewhere — the operator's daily minimum and any landing fees sit on top, and they are why two operators quoting the same hourly rate return different totals. Operators set their price; any Go Heli Nepal service fee is shown as its own line on your quote.
Charter helicopters in Nepal run from 5 passenger seats to 9 on a Bell 412EP, and a charter buys the whole cabin rather than a seat in it. Total weight, not headcount, is what an operator prices against — give real passenger weights and baggage when you ask and the quotes come back flyable.
Lukla to Kathmandu and back is 146 nautical miles. Every common charter helicopter type can fly that out and back without a fuel stop. Fuel is sold at only a handful of Nepali airfields, so an aircraft that cannot carry the round trip has to plan a stop — and that stop is block time, which means it is money on the quote. Ask every operator at once and the ones that can fly it direct are visible immediately.
Operators publish this leg year-round. Charter is a first-light activity in Nepal whatever the month — Himalayan valleys cloud over as the day warms — so a morning slot is both likelier to go and likelier to go on time. Monsoon weeks are flown, but with more days lost to cloud than the autumn.
Before anybody quotes you
Above about 12,000 ft the seat count stops being the answer. Enter your party’s real weights and the landing site, and see which aircraft can take them.
Wondering how long the leg itself is? The flight-time calculator gives the distance between any two landing sites in Nepal and the time in the air — which, on a charter priced by the hour, is most of the quote.
Not sure which to pick?
Both end with a licensed operator flying you. The difference is who sets the price.
A flight we already publish — the Everest tour to Kala Patthar, Muktinath, Annapurna Base Camp. Typical fares are on its page before you ask, seats can be shared with other travellers, and the desk collects the quotes.
Browse packagesAnywhere to anywhere: transfers, expedition support, cargo, a landing site with no published product. You describe the leg once and every operator able to fly it comes back with its own price for the whole aircraft.
Price a legThe figures above are for Lukla to Kathmandu. What a charter costs in Nepal, and the four things that move a quote — block time, positioning, the daily minimum and landing fees — is on the charter hub.
Leave a number instead. A dispatcher works out the legs, the aircraft and the positioning with you on the phone — which is faster than any form when the plan is still moving.