NAC stepping closer to acquire two wide-body A330 aircraft
March 16, 2017
The contract negotiation with US-based AAR Corp, the supplier of two Airbus A330-200 wide-body jets to NAC, was concluded by NAC on Wednesday laying the final signing agreement on purchase of the first lot of A330 aircraft.
The two jets are expected to be purchased by the end of March after both parties agreed to sign the “sales and purchase agreement”. AAR Corp has already been dispatched $1 million by NAC as a commitment fee for purchase of two wide-body jets. NAC, which has never added a wide-body aircraft to its fleet, will be the proud owner of two Airbus A330 which are expected to arrive in Nepal by January and March of 2018.
The American aviation support company AAR had offered price rate of $104.8 million for each jet however; the contract price of each jet will not exceed $109 million after adjusting inflation. Both the sides have also agreed to settle their own tax liabilities in their respective countries.
$40 million has been allocated for the pre-delivery order payment which NAC will be paying a month after signing the sales and purchase agreement. The remaining payment will be made as per the installment agreement.
The current owner of the two wide-body jet aircraft, which NAC is planning to buy, is an airline based in Lisbon, Portugal named HI Fly. According to the Managing Director of NAC Sugat Ratna Kansakar, the negotiation concluded with success and the draft of the negotiation will be forwarded to NAC board for the approval. Secretary of the Tourism Ministry chairs the NAC board so; the board meeting will be conducted only after the arrival of the Tourism Secretary Shankar Prasad Adhikari from Russia.
Airbus A330-200 can carry 280 passengers in a two-class layout. The supplier is intended to include maintenance crews and the cost of a minimum set of flight for at least one year. Moreover, it should also include tools required for regular day-to-day maintenance and the cost of consumable spare parts.
NAC has announced to increase flight frequencies to major destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Doha. Also it will be launching four new long-haul routes namely Seoul (South Korea), Tokyo (Japan), Dammam (Saudi Arabia) and Sydney (Australia).
