Air services at Hilly and Himalaya region have been affected as Nepal Airlines Corporation’s 2 Twin-otter have been out of operation for 4 days following a technical glitch.
NAC’s DHC-6 Twin Otter STOL utility aircraft have been conducting flights at rural areas of Nepal. The corporation is preparing to bring foreign technical team for repair and maintenance of twin-otter after Nepal’s technical team could not repair this aircraft.
Likewise, an engine of Harbin Y-12e ‘9N-AKS’ is under maintenance in Canada after it encountered a fault whereas Chinese engineers are conducting C-Check of one MA60. As per the information, the C-Check will be completed within 3 weeks and it will resume its operation thereafter.
NAC being national flag carrier has been repeatedly facing the crisis in operating domestic flights. Many local people especially from rural areas have been dealing with irregular flights and are compelled to opt for private airlines with more airfare as compared to the NAC.
Though Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has planned to separate domestic and international flight operations of the corporation in order to focus and enhance domestic flights as well as to increase competitiveness in domestic market unfortunately due to absence of accurate management, the spot of bad impression has made the quality of the corporation dubious. It is mandatory to understand the root of the problem and work effectively to boost services.
Currently, 3 Y-12e and 1 MA60 aircraft are in operations for domestic flights whereas 5 aircraft are operating scheduled flights to the international destinations. The corporations’ international market share is expected to rise from 7% to 17% with the operation of all aircraft, however, the domestic market share has not been satisfactory due to ineffective operation of 6 Chinese aircraft and repeated technical faults. Moreover, NAC is also planning to lease its 6 Chinese aircraft to any other foreign company.
