Everest base camp trek was one of the best treks we have ever done. Beautiful mountains, spectacular views and the ultimate test of our capabilities. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience, except for one part. Lukla airport.
Put it simply, Lukla airport was the biggest scam we have ever encountered and not just in Nepal. It has the reputation of being the most dangerous airport in the world.
Maybe.
But I know for sure it is the most corrupted airport in the world! And no one is talking about it. But if you plan an independent Everest base camp trek you should know, because knowing can save you a lot of money!
Read more about How to save money on Everest Base camp trek!
Would you like to know more about travel planning? Visit our Reverse Travel Planning Strategy.
Disclaimer: Lukla airport is an unpleasant place to be if you are an independent traveller. If you are part of the tour you will probably never experience what we did. Why? About that, later in this post. In this post, we write about our personal and other backpackers experience, unfortunately. All this happened to us or our friends on the trek.
So why is Lukla airport a huge scam?
Because Lukla airport builds its business on people´s desperation. Maybe it is a harsh accusation you think but let me explain it.
The only goal of almost everyone who is involved in business at this airport is to take as much money from you as they can. It is not enough that you had already paid for the air tickets, they will try to literally do anything to take more.
There are a lot of reasons why Lukla airport is just a tourist trap. On the way there, on the way out, there are several ways how to take more money from you.
Several reasons for cancelling flights, one better than the other
Everyone who ever researched Everest Base camp trek knows that Lukla airport can be often closed due to a bad weather. Which is understandable due to several accidents that had happened there in the past. There is a reason why Lukla airport is called the most dangerous airport in the world. And of course, everyone respects that, no one wants to die crashing into the crags.
So when we were at the Kathmandu airport and we heard the announcement that Lukla airport had closed because of the bad weather, we were understanding and patient. What a bigger surprise it is in Lukla on the way back, when you realize that not everything is as it seems.
It can be perfectly sunny without any clouds in Lukla airport and guess what? Lukla airport would still be closed.
Imagine waking up in Lukla on the day of your flight, you are laying in your bed and you are almost scared to open your eyes and look out of the window. Because you know if it is cloudy, you will be stuck there for at least another day. Lukla airport lies between the mountain massifs where the clouds hold. If it is cloudy in the morning, there is just a very tiny chance that the weather will clear out during the day.
So you finally find the courage to get up and look from the window. And boom…you could not be happier. The sun is shining, no wind and no clouds anywhere to be found. Everything seems perfect. Happy, with a huge smile on your face you pack your bags and head for the airport. But it is not that simple. As we learnt, nice weather is not a guarantee for flying.
On the way from Lukla to Kathmandu, they use very similar excuse why flights have to be cancelled. Even though it is a perfect weather in Lukla, the flights get cancelled, because there is a bad weather in Kathmandu!
Fair enough, I could even understand this reason, even though it doesn´t make much sense. When the weather turns bad, the flights to Lukla airport are cancelled because of one of those reasons:
- the pilots simply can not see the runway because of the clouds or fog
- the strong wind can mess up with the plane in the valleys
- or overall the landing can be quite dangerous
But at Kathmandu? At the biggest airport which does not lie in the mountain valley?
And it is not like that those small planes cannot fly in the rain…
Read more about How to budget for your visit in Kathmandu!
But ok, I am not a meteorologist and I still don´t want to die in the plane crash. So everyone quietly waits….
But the airport can not use these two excuses every day right? It would get noticed and people happen to have weather forecasts on their phones.
So what happens where there is a nice weather both in Lukla and Kathmandu? Here comes the third and the most hilarious excuse for cancelling the flights!
The Lukla airport is closed because there is an excessive air traffic in Kathmandu!!!!
Do you understand? I am not kidding! Let me repeat it to you!
There is an excessive air traffic at the airport!!! Weird right? So Lukla airport is closed because apparently, no one had planned that there would be any flights from Lukla to Kathmandu in the first place?
Apparently, they had never heard about the flight schedule which is carefully planned second by second days and weeks ahead at every airport in the world!
And now, are you asking why would they do it? The answer is very simple…. It is all about the helicopter business!
It is all about the helicopters
You need to understand that everything and everyone happens to be connected in Nepal. The flights themselves to Lukla are not cheap. You pay between $150-$180 for a 30 minutes flight, so around $360 for a return ticket.
But what happens when Lukla airport is closed? If Lukla airport is closed it doesn´t necessarily mean it is closed for helicopters too. Helicopters are smaller, they can fly lower which means they better manoeuvre in the valleys. Even though it is foggy in Lukla airport, in some cases the helicopters can safely land at the airport.
So in the minute, the airport staff announce that Lukla airport is closed, some schmuck will approach you and offer you a helicopter ride. Do you want to know the price for a ticket? There is no set price.
The price changes every minute. There is a literally black market with helicopters happening right at the airport.
The lowest price we heard for a one-way helicopter ride was $3 000 per helicopter, which accommodates up to six people. That is roughly $500 per person. Pretty steep right? I was wondering who would buy it for that price?
Guess what, there were queue waiting for helicopters of desperate travellers that wanted to get in or out.
When we were there, there were helicopters landing and taking off every five minutes. I don´t even want to count the net profit!
And remember, everything and everyone is connected in Nepal. The tour guides, airport staff, helicopter sellers – everyone gets their commision!
Helicopters and guides are also connected to another tourist scam – insurance scam. It is now highly publicised fraud about how guides are trying to make tourist sick, so they can call a helicopter rescue and cash big bucks. A great article about this issue was published on the website Outsideonline.com – you can read it HERE.
The only one left drained out of money, is you.
If you read our story from Everest base camp trek you know that we were stuck in Kathmandu on the way to Eerest for four days because of the bad weather. The first day, when the flights got cancelled, we were approached by this seller trying to sell us helicopters. Out of curiosity, we asked about the price. On Monday he told us that we could fly for $400 per person if we pay immediately, otherwise, it would be $500. With laughter, we declined.
It was way over our budget.
On Thursday the day we were finally supposed to fly again, the weather turned bad again. It was the fourth day in a row when no plane took off towards Lukla airport. Can you imagine how many desperate and angry people there were? The airport was packed.
Sitting on the floor, waiting what will happen, we were approached again by a different guy. Waiting for four days we actually discussed the possibility to fly by a helicopter. It would ruin our budget completely, but we were actually thinking about it. But….
Surprise, surprise….The price for a helicopter had not just changed, it had skyrocketed.
The price went from $500 to $1 000 per person!!!
You know, the helicopter price rises as people´s hopelessness grows.
We thought no one can actually buy it, again we were proven wrong. By lunchtime, the helicopters sold out for the entire day!
Do you want to fly? Show me how much
When your flight gets cancelled, your position is very unclear. Will you get another flight as soon as possible or will you have to wait on the waiting list until there is an empty seat?
The answer is, it depends.
There is no procedure for how to deal with people whose flight got cancelled. Sometimes, they will be on the waiting list for several days until some seat empties. Sometimes they will be prioritized, so people with regular tickets have to wait until planes got out those who are waiting. Which can mess up with your plans. Your flight gets cancelled and you are left the next day in the same situation as they were before.
But if you happen to be stuck in Lukla airport for a few days and your time is running out, you start to get desperate. Do you have an important meeting? International flight? Whatever? What can you do if you are still on the waiting list for several days? The solution is simple…
Envelope showing how much you want to get out of the airport!
We saw a girl, desperate after waiting for 4 days in Lukla. Everyone was telling her that the planes are packed and there are no available seats. After 4 days she gave up and asked what she needs to do to get on a plane. The airport staff showed her a calculator with a number 350. She opened the purse, got out $350 and put them in the envelope. This all happened just in front of us.
The staff took the envelope and handed it to over the counter to another staff. After 10 minutes the guy came back with the ticket. Magically, there was a seat available in the next flight leaving in 10 minutes. Let me just remind you, that girl had already paid $360 for her original flight. This was an extra!!!
And no, the airport guy was not that nice that he would beg for her to get her a seat. As our friend told us after, it is a common practice. The airlines almost never sold out all the seats in the plane. They keep few seats empty, for exactly that reason. To overprice them to desperate travellers that need to get out.
Another example that happened to our friend. The Lukla airport closed because there was an excessive air traffic in Kathmandu. But after waiting for a while, this guy came to him telling him that if he pays an additional $150, he can fly immediately.
So wait, what? When you pay an additional $150, the air traffic in Kathmandu will magically stop? Or was it a scam to pay $150 to someone who would just magically disappear with your money?
Masters in upselling the desperate tourists
There are many ways how to literally rob the tourists. Sometimes when Lukla airport is closed for planes, and helicopters are sold out, they come with another scenario. They present you this solution how to get you from Lukla to Kathmandu. They offer you to fly you by helicopter to closeby airport, probably Ramjastan and then offer you to arrange buses from there to Kathmandu. Off course you need to pay extra for a helicopter ride, which often lasts for no more than a couple of minutes. In this case, you can ask for a refund on your air tickets.
So first, you have to believe that those incompetent people, that can not even stick to a flight schedule, will actually arrange the buses for you. When we saw the disorganization at the airport, I would not believe them. There is no organization whatsoever.
So in the end, you might get stuck in a hole in the middle of nowhere without any help and buses. And of course, I do not even have to mention that you need to pay extra for a bus ride, which can take up to 12 hours through one of the most dangerous roads on this planet.
At Lukla airport everyone is against you
And I mean everyone. Desperate travellers are fighting for available seats and very often it can turn quite ugly. Scammers are trying to sell you tickets from Lukla for non-existing flights just to rob you out of money. Helicopter sellers are raising money for your escape route every minute and I don´t have to talk about airport staff. It is the story on its own. Not only the airport staff is not willing to help you in any way, but they also don´t even speak english.
But it gets worse.
There are hotel owners paying to the airport staff to purposely left behind some people at Lukla airport.
Why?
Because if backpackers are stucked at the Lukla airport, the lodge´s owners get bookings.
True story!
Why? Why? Why?
As I said it at the beginning, Lukla airport builds its business on people´s desperation. The thing is, when you are in Kathmandu, you still have options. If your flight gets cancelled, you don´t have to go to Lukla.
You can change your plans.
You still have a choice.
You can choose a different trek, travel to Pokhara instead. You can practically do whatever you want to.
But when you are already in Lukla, there is no other way to escape.
And those scammers know it.
Not a lot of people have an additional 5 days to walk from Lukla to Jiri and then take a bus or a jeep to Kathmandu. Especially if you are on the tight time schedule. In this case, your only option to get out is to fly.
And if they cancel your flight? Most people will pay additional rates and pay for helicopter rides because they are simply desperate. They have their plans, international flights, events they can not miss…
And what if you don’t have additional resources to pay extra money? You are stuck there and you wait. Simple as that. Stucked travellers still need to sleep somewhere, eat somewhere, so business in Lukla grows.
So what should I do? You ask.
So what should you do if you still want to do Everest base camp trek, but you do not want to go through Lukla airport?
You actually have a way better and cheaper option. Just start your trek from Jiri or Shivalaya.
It is so much cheaper because you don´t pay for flights. It adds up to 5 days to your trek, though. But without stress and worrying. Plus you actually help local people. The villages from Jiri to Lukla were badly damaged by 2015 earthquake. So by staying in local villages you actually help them rebuild and reconstruct their lodges. That is what we would do if we ever did Everest base camp trek again.
Being a part of a tour is an advantage when it comes to Lukla airport
Tours get always a priority.
The tours will even take your plane that you purchased tickets on.
I am not kidding. It happened to us.
We had to wait for two hours until all the agency´s clients left. But we were not alone. All backpackers had to wait…Our plane was full of backpackers, that were denied from their planes. We all had to wait until all tour trekkers leave.
And why is it so frustrating?
I would not mind if I have to wait, that is fine by me.
But your level of frustration skyrockets when you see your plane leaving without you, you are being told to wait, without any explanation while you see clouds approaching the valley. So you know for sure that in a few hours the airport will be closed again and you might be stucked there again.
And the next day, the whole process repeats. You have to fight for your spot on the plane, leave your plane to the tour and wait…
We actually met people that had been waiting for several days, doing this every day in desperation to get out.
We were told that the tour agencies don’t buy the seats for the exact plane. They just buy options to use the plane. So if they come, they are right to take a plane. That is what we were told.
But if you choose to be a part of the tour, you should still be aware of those scams. We saw tour after tour got trapped by that helicopter scam too. Tour guides were telling to their customers that there is no other option then opt for a helicopter ride. Maybe there was really no other option, maybe not. When you are part of the tour you probably don´t have additional days for waiting.
And also, agency´s trekkers are more willing to pay additional money for an extra helicopter ride. On top of what they had already paid for the tour.
Stay away from Lukla airport
I think it is import to know about it, you still can fly there and have an enjoyable time. I am not trying to tell you do not fly to Lukla. You probably will anyway. But when I look back I would love someone to tell me about those scams before we went.
Just to be prepared for it.
Lukla airport is the beginning and the end of your trek. It is your first impression and the last memory that you have from you Everest base camp trek. It is a shame that a lot of traveller´s last memories from Everest base camp are obscured by corruption and fraud at Lukla airport.
We were aware that Lukla airport is often closed due the bad weather. I was mentally prepared for that, what I was not prepared for was the amount of animosity and stress, corruption and fights to get out of Lukla.
Do you have a similar story from Lukla airport? Have you ever travelled through Lukla airport? What is your experience? Let us know in the comment section down below. And if you agree with us, share this post with your friends. This has to change, and more people know about it, the better.
