Yongphulla Domestic Airport (Yonphula)
Yongphulla — Yonphula on Drukair’s own timetable — is the domestic airport for eastern Bhutan, at Kanglung, next to Sherubtse College, at 2,562 m. Three flights a week to Paro. It is not a sight. It is how most guests reach this end of the country, and it turns two days of driving into an hour.
What flying in actually gets you
The east is a long way from Paro by road — genuinely two days, over Thrumshing La and through Bumthang and Mongar. Yongphulla removes them.
Drukair’s own destinations page gives three flights a week between Yonphula and Paro, alongside five weekly to Bumthang and one to Gelephu. We had two weekly, via Bumthang published here for years; the airline says three, and does not describe the routing. Schedules move — ask us for the days before you build an itinerary around them.
Two things to hold alongside that. Operations are daylight-only, because of the terrain. And weather closes it: fog, and low visibility through the winter. A flight that doesn’t go on the day you need it costs you the two days you were trying to save, which is why we would rather talk it through than sell it.
Why it took six years to work
This is the good part of the story and our page used to compress it into “the runway was upgraded in 2017”.
The airstrip was cut in the 1960s by the Indian Border Roads Organisation — the road builders, not the army — as a rough landing ground. Scheduled service was inaugurated in December 2011, and then:
- June 2012 — closed for resurfacing on safety grounds
- January 2013 — reopened
- later in 2013 — closed again, for structural repairs and for having no fire cover
- 8 October 2017 — reopened, runway rebuilt
The reason underneath all of it: the ATR 42-500 is certified for a 2% runway gradient, and this runway had 3.8%. The airport existed before an aircraft that could reliably use it did. What you land on now is 1,266 m of asphalt, 37 m wide, rebuilt to fix exactly that.
Where it is
Kanglung, at about 2,560 m — the same settlement as Sherubtse College, Bhutan’s first college, founded in 1966. The airport and the college are a few kilometres apart on the Samdrup Jongkhar–Trashigang highway.
Nobody publishes a transfer time to Trashigang town, so we don’t either. Ask us — it is a real question and it deserves a real answer rather than a guess.
Fitting it into a trip
Flying in and driving out is the usual shape: land at Yongphulla, work down through Trashigang Dzong, Gom Kora and the highlands, and come back west overland through Mongar and Bumthang so you see the country you would otherwise fly over.
See things to do in Trashigang for what the east holds once you are here.
Tours that visit Trashigang
Frequently asked questions
How many flights a week go to Yongphulla?
Three, between Yonphula and Paro, according to Drukair's own destinations page — which also gives five a week to Bumthang and one to Gelephu. Ask us before you plan around it: this is the most perishable fact on the page, and we had two weekly published here until we checked.
Why did Yongphulla airport keep closing?
The runway gradient. The ATR 42-500 that had to use it is limited to a 2% gradient and the runway had 3.8%. Scheduled service was inaugurated in December 2011, closed in June 2012 for resurfacing, reopened in January 2013, closed again the same year for structural repairs and lack of fire cover, and finally reopened on 8 October 2017 after the runway was rebuilt. The airport was, in effect, finished before the aircraft that had to land on it could.
Is Yongphulla worth flying into?
It turns two days of driving into an hour, which in eastern Bhutan is not a small thing. The catch is that it is daylight-only, weather-dependent, and served three times a week — so it is excellent when it works and expensive when it doesn't. Ask us and we will tell you what we would do with your dates.
How many domestic airports does Bhutan have?
Three — Yongphulla in the east, Bathpalathang in Bumthang and Gelephu in the south — alongside the international airport at Paro.
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