Shree Airlines has not received approval to buy Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 Aircraft from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA). Anil Manandhar, Corporate Manager of Shree Airlines said it has been more than 5 months of application being forwarded to buy Bombardier Turboprop Q-400 series aircraft. However, Ministry has not responded to it till date, he added.
MoCTCA has already dispatched the letter to the Civil Aviation Authoriy of Nepal (CAAN) for their opinion on the addition of Shree Airlines new aircraft. However, CAAN’s dawdling in releasing opinion has created hindrance on deciding about it, said Ministry Officials.
As per the source, CAAN has disregarded the proposal stating the addition of Bombardier will create difficulty to the authority as it has limited manpower to regulate such aircraft. Also it has recommended Shree Airline to buy either Jet or ATR aircraft instead of buying Bombardier Q-400.
But Shree Airline which been flying Bombardier aircraft has planned to buy same company’s aircraft.
Authority had commenced that it will not be suitable to add this new aircraft since it lacks appropriate number of manpower to inspect, test and security check. For which, Shree had lodged a proposal infront of authority to provide trainings to the manpower as well.
However, CAAN has vowed that there has been delay on sending their opinion since it took time to take information about the aircraft being launched in Nepal for the first time. Rajan Pokhrel, Deputy Director of CAAN said analysis of technical and security aspects of the aircraft is going on, so we will be sending our opinion soon.
Shree Airline has planned to operate its flight over different Indian cities with its new Bombardier Q-400 aircraft.
