Dubai to Pokhara Direct Flight: flydubai Schedule, Fares, and Your First Evening

I live in Pokhara. For years, when a friend in Dubai asked how to get here, I gave the same answer: fly to Kathmandu, then take another flight, or sit in a bus on the Prithvi Highway for most of a day. On 23 September 2026 that answer finally changed.

flydubai flight FZ 1165 left Dubai International and became the first scheduled international arrival at Pokhara International Airport (PHH). Fire trucks met the aircraft with a water-cannon salute. I have watched plenty of planes use the old domestic strip. This one is different. It is on a timetable, from Terminal 3 in Dubai straight to Pokhara.

I am Pratap Sharma. If you are booking the Dubai to Pokhara direct flight, this is the note I would send you: the times, the fares flydubai actually published, and what to do with the evening. You land after dark. Plan for that, and the trip starts well.

Gallery

We have had the airport. We have been waiting for this flight.

Pokhara International Airport opened on 1 January 2023. I remember the excitement, and then the quiet. Charters came and went. A daily international timetable did not. If you wanted a scheduled flight into Nepal, you still landed in Kathmandu, or at Gautam Buddha International in Bhairahawa.

flydubai already knew the Kathmandu route. They have flown it since 2009, carried more than 4.5 million passengers on it, and say about 65% of those people continued onto the flydubai and Emirates network through Dubai. Pokhara is their second city in Nepal. Four daily flights to Kathmandu, plus this new daily one, takes them to 35 flights a week into the country.

What matters if you are holding a ticket is simpler. This is the first scheduled international service into Pokhara, which makes us Nepal’s third airport with regular international flights. The route sits on the Emirates codeshare, so you can buy one ticket, check your bag through, and reach Pokhara from a long list of cities that already pass through Dubai.

Sudhir Sreedharan, who runs commercial operations at flydubai, said it the way I would say it to a guest: a non-stop door to Pokhara, without the extra transfer or the long road between a Gulf departure and a lakeside hotel.

Dubai to Pokhara flight times

Nepal is 1 hour 45 minutes ahead of Dubai. So when the board says 12:00 in Dubai and 18:15 in Pokhara, do not do the school maths and call it a six-hour flight. Both ways take about 4 hours 30 minutes.

These are the local times flydubai published for service from 23 September 2026, and they describe the route as daily. I would still check your exact date on flydubai’s Pokhara flights page or the timetable before you pay for hotels. Airlines move days around when the loads change. I would rather you hear that from me than from a check-in counter.

Two things people miss:

• You land after sunset in late September. Around then the sun drops over Pokhara close to 6 pm. At 18:15 the Annapurnas are a dark line, not the photo you saved. Keep the mountain view for the next morning. The ride into town is city lights, and that is a fine way to arrive.
• The plane does not sit here long. FZ 1165 is due in at 18:15 and FZ 1166 is due out at 19:15. If you are flying home, get to the airport with time in hand. There is no stack of later Pokhara–Dubai flights to fall back on.

What flydubai said the tickets start at

On 25 September 2026 flydubai published these return fares as the prices the route starts from.

The Pokhara prices are their own offer. Don’t convert the Dubai fare and expect the same figure. You can book on flydubai.com, in the app, through a travel agent, or on (+971) 600 54 44 45.

If your trip starts outside the UAE, the useful bit is the Emirates codeshare. flydubai says you can connect to more than 140 destinations across Asia, Europe, and the Americas on one ticket, with the bag checked through. The Gulf cities they mentioned as popular Nepal connections are Bucharest, Dammam, Jeddah, Muscat, and Riyadh. From the Emirates side they named Larnaca, Lisbon, London, New York, and Vienna.

And please search the right airport. PHH is Pokhara International. The domestic field we used for years is a different place and a different code. I have seen “Pokhara” searches that quietly build a Kathmandu ticket plus a domestic hop. Read the airport name before you pay.

Who I would put on this flight

Kathmandu is still the right door for a lot of trips. flydubai still flies there four times a day, and if you want the temples, Thamel, or the Everest side, go there. This new flight is for people whose Nepal starts where I live.

You live in the UAE and your family is in Pokhara, or in the hills behind it. Kaski, Syangja, Baglung, the road toward Mustang — you no longer need a night in Kathmandu and a second ticket. You leave Dubai at noon. You can be at a Lakeside table the same evening.

The whole holiday is the Annapurna side. Annapurna Base Camp, Mardi Himal, Ghorepani and Poon Hill, or a few slow days by the lake. I have done the ABC trek from Pokhara with friends. Starting here is the natural way to do it. Landing in Kathmandu still works, but you spend the best part of a day on a domestic flight or six to eight hours on the highway. This flight gives you that day back.

You are coming from Europe, the Gulf, or the US and you want one ticket. Bags checked through, no second airline to rebook when the first one is late. If you also want Kathmandu, do it on the way out: a domestic flight or a tourist bus east, then fly home from KTM. Or come in through Kathmandu and leave from here. For the first time, the country does not have to be entered and left through the same door.

The evening you land, and the morning after

An 18:15 arrival is a good time to reach a hotel and a bad time to start an activity. I would plan it that way.

Airport to Lakeside. The international airport sits on the east side of the valley. A taxi to Lakeside is a normal evening ride, not a journey. Agree the fare before the bags go in, or take a metered taxi if one is waiting. If your hotel can send a car, let them. You will not feel like bargaining after four and a half hours in the air.

That night, stay by the water. Phewa will be dark. The boatmen will be tying up. Walk Lakeside, eat, sleep. The street is the welcome. The mountains can wait until morning. I live with that view and I still think the first night should be easy.

Next morning is the one you came for. If the sky is clear, go to Sarangkot for sunrise. Machhapuchhre and the Annapurna wall are right there. Late September sits between the last of the monsoon and the clear autumn weeks, so some mornings are sharp and some still carry cloud on the ridges. If Sarangkot is grey, don’t force it. A boat to Tal Barahi or an hour of paddleboarding is a good morning even when the peaks are hiding.

Leave paragliding for a morning after you have slept. Tandem flights go when the wind and the visibility agree, usually well before noon. Landing at dusk and expecting to fly at dawn is how people end up watching from the ground. Give yourself a night in a bed first. I would.

If you are not walking straight onto a trek, this is a clean first couple of days:

1. Night 1 — Lakeside. Check in, eat, walk the lake road.
2. Morning 2 — Sarangkot at sunrise, then breakfast back in town.
3. Late morning — paragliding, the World Peace Pagoda, or a boat, depending on the sky.
4. Afternoon — one valley classic. Devi’s Fall and Gupteshwor, the International Mountain Museum, or a quiet hour on the water.
5. Day 3 — start walking, or stay. Ghorepani, Mardi, or ABC if the legs are ready. If not: the zip line, bungee, an ultralight, or another morning on the lake.

The wider map of the city is in our Pokhara guide.

Once you are here

These are the things I would actually book around a direct arrival. No Kathmandu day hiding in the plan.

Stand-Up Paddleboarding on Phewa Lake

Sunrise at Sarangkot

Annapurna Base Camp Trek

Boating on Phewa Lake

Paragliding in Pokhara

ZipFlyer Nepal - The World's Steepest Zip-line

If you would rather have the first nights arranged, these two stays are built around the lake and the ridge. That is the shape of a short trip that now starts at PHH.

3 Nights / 4 Days

Pokhara Lakeside & Sarangkot Sunrise

NPR 27,000

10% off

NPR 24,300 per adult on twin sharing

4 Nights / 5 Days

Pokhara Short Trek & Lakeside Retreat

NPR 32,000

9% off

NPR 29,120 per adult on twin sharing

If you are trekking, the flight gets you to Pokhara. It does not get you up the trail. You still want permits, a guide if you are new to this, and a weather window. October and November are the clearest weeks in the Annapurna foothills. Landing in late September is a strong start. Just know a ridge can still sit in cloud for a morning. We have all stood there waiting for it to lift.

What this changes for us

For seventeen years, “fly to Nepal” meant Kathmandu, and Pokhara was a second ticket. Friends with four or five days often spent one of them on that connection and then quietly dropped the west. I have watched that happen.

A daily Dubai flight will not, on its own, remake a tourism year. It does change the habit. A weekend from the Gulf, or a longer connection from London or New York, can now include the lake and the Annapurnas without a domestic add-on. The hotels, the guides, and the cafés along Lakeside will feel that before any arrival chart does.

Kathmandu still matters. Everest, the old squares, a lot of trek departures — they begin there, and they should. What I like about this flight is that you can open the trip in the city you actually came to see.

Questions I keep getting

Is there a direct flight from Dubai to Pokhara?

Yes. flydubai flies non-stop between Dubai International (DXB) and Pokhara International (PHH). The first one left Dubai on 23 September 2026. It is the first scheduled international route into Pokhara.

How long is the Dubai to Pokhara flight?

About 4 hours 30 minutes. Dubai shows 12:00 and Pokhara shows 18:15 because we are 1 hour 45 minutes ahead. The flight itself is not six hours. I promise you will check this twice. I did.

Which airport code should I search?

PHH. That is this flydubai flight. The older domestic airport is a different code. If the itinerary says Kathmandu in the middle, it is not the direct one.

Which flight numbers operate?

FZ 1165 is Dubai to Pokhara. FZ 1166 is Pokhara to Dubai. flydubai published them as a daily pair from Terminal 3. Check the day you want on flydubai.com before you tell anyone your arrival time.

How much is a ticket?

At launch they advertised return fares from AED 1,950 in Economy and from AED 5,400 in Business out of Dubai, and from NPR 80,500 in Economy and from NPR 135,000 in Business out of Pokhara. Your date will have its own price. Treat those numbers as the floor they announced, then look at the live fare.

Can I connect from London, New York, or another city on one ticket?

Often, yes, on the Emirates–flydubai codeshare. One ticket, bag checked through, and flydubai says that network reaches more than 140 cities via Dubai. Search the through-fare. A ticket you stitch together yourself can be cheaper, and it can also leave you stuck: FZ 1166 lands in Dubai at 22:00, which misses a lot of onward flights the same night.

Do I still need Kathmandu?

Only if your plan includes it. A lakeside holiday, paragliding, and the Annapurna treks can start and finish in Pokhara now. Add Kathmandu when you want Kathmandu.

Where I checked the numbers

Times, fares, and the “first scheduled international flight” line come from flydubai, not from me guessing:

• flydubai becomes the first airline to launch scheduled international flights to Pokhara (25 September 2026)
• Flights from Dubai to Pokhara
• Pokhara International Airport on flydubai

Fares and times move. Their page is where you book. This one is the local note: what to do with the hours after FZ 1165 shuts the engines down, from someone who will still be here in the morning.