The Tenzing Hillary Airport(Lukla) project

In 1964, Lukla airport was built by Sir Edmund Hillary of Himalayan Trust. The objective of the airport at that time was to ease the transportation of supplies for the Himalayan Trust schools and hospital projects. In those days, delivery of supplies required more than three weeks of the hard trek by porters from Kathmandu. But today, this airport serves as one of the busiest airports in the mountain regions of Nepal. The airport can operate more than 40 flights of STOL plane and more than 20 flights of helicopter thereby bringing more than 45,000 tourists per year in the Khumbu region. As a result, the economy and livelihood of the area have been changed considerably.

The government of Nepal renamed Lukla airport as “Tenzing-Hillary airport” in memory of these two Everest heroic figures in 2008.