Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), national flag carrier will send the last installment of the second Wide Body aircraft cost worth Rs 8 billion on July 23, 2018. The corporation will send the amount through a loan from Citizen Investment Trust (CIT).
The corporation had sent the first installment of Rs 8 billion for two Airbus A330 aircraft on June 7, 2017. The second installment of Rs 8 billion was sent on Tuesday of last week. The corporation has sent Rs 16 billion in two installments. The amount will be sent to the Ireland -based joint (escrow) of Hifly X and AAR Corporation.
The first Airbus A330 of NAC arrived to Kathmandu on June 28, 2018.
AAR Corporation of America, which has been supplying the aircraft to corporation, has made a negotiation to provide US $ 104.8 million worth of Airbus A330 to the corporation. Rabindra Shrestha, spokesperson of the corporation stated that “We sent the last installment of Rs 8 billion and two day after sending the money, our second Airbus A330 will reach Kathmandu. The corporation sent money to Hifly Company, which proposed to sell aircraft through US Company AAR Corporation. AAR Corporation made a purchase agreement after winning the Global Tender.”
For the first installment of the second A330-200 wide-body airplanes, the corporation has borrowed Rs 8 billion half from Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and half from Citizen Investment Trust (CIT) whereas Rs 8 billion for the second installment from the Provident Fund. The corporation will take Rs 8 billion for the last installment from Citizen Investment Trust (CIT). The loan agreement of both 12 institutions for Rs 12-12 billion has already been done.
The two A330-200s, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines, will feature a two-class cabin configuration that will seat a total of 274 passengers—18 in business class and 256 in economy class.
According to the corporation, the first Airbus A330 aircraft was delivered under the command of Hi-fly pilots and the second Airbus will delivered under the same pilots. The aircraft will come to Kathmandu directly from the Airbus Factory in Toulouse, France. It takes nine hours to reach Kathmandu from Toulouse. 7 set(14 pilots) are required to operate the Airbus. The corporation has prepared Pilot Maheshworman (MM) Dangol and Shrawon Rijal with 6 pilots. However, 6 of them are not allowed to operate the Airbus. They are permitted to operate Airbus only after operating under the command of pilots (Captain).
The corporation plans to operate the first wide body for regular commercial flights from 1st August, 2018. “The first commercial flight of the first A330 will be operated to Doha, Qatar/Dubai” Spokesperson Shrestha said.
The first long distance flight of A330 (Long Haul ) will be flying to Japan or South Korea, “said Spokesperson Shrestha, for this, three to four months, short distance flights will be conducted to Dubai, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Bangkok, New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. ‘
