POKHARA, April 27 -- Pokhara Regional International Airport (PRIA) remained closed even on Saturday due to poor visibility caused by haze, leaving hundreds of passengers including foreign tourists in distress.

Nabina Karmacharya, General Manager of PRIA, said that flights could not operate as visibility dropped to only 1,000 meters, far below the minimum required for safe landing and takeoff operations. To land at PRIA, visibility must be at least 3,700 meters, while a minimum of 1600 meters is required for takeoff.

An aircraft requires adequate visibility to fly from PRIA. Karmacharya stated that the visibility at PRIA had been around 2000 meters earlier in the week, but on Saturday, it dropped to just 1,000 meters. "This abrupt reduct...