Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is preparing to sell Chinese aircraft bought 5 years costing more than Nepalese Rs 3 Billion.
The Chinese government sold 4 Chinese aircraft and two were given in grants at Rs 3.50 Billion to Nepal. However, after these aircraft arrived, at NAC experienced a lot of problems.
The corporation has decided to sell those aircraft after the aircraft continuous to witness technical problem and it’s been a very hard time getting engine parts.
Madan Kharel, executive chairman of NAC stated that the Chinese aircraft is no longer in good condition that they could operate. They had tried to operate aircraft with maximum effort but even in general problem, they could not get parts and hardware and the aircraft have to remain grounded for long time he said.
“We have reached in the conclusion that either we will sell or give in lease.” Kharel added.
According to the corporation, it is really hard to get engine parts and even if they get it, the prices are too expensive.
Kharel informed that MA 60 was grounded few days ago stating it is natural. “But the corporation cannot afford to spend months for grounded aircraft due to absence of parts.” said Kharel.
NAC bought 2 MA-60 and 4 Harbin Y-12e Chinese aircraft from China 5 years ago and started to operate effectively lately. Unfortunately, it was only for short time as the aircraft faced problem again.
NAC has faced loss of more than NRs. 33 crores from the Chinese aircraft. The Chinese manufactured aircraft were brought to perform domestic flights, but the aircraft couldn’t operate effectively as expected. The aircraft faced problems in operation due to lack of capable pilots too.
According to previous record, the loss from 1 MA-60 was around 24.86 crore while Harbin y-12e series created around 8.96 crore.
In fiscal year 2073-74, the corporation faced loss of 33 crore 83 lakhs 95 thousand and 39 Nepal Rupees from the initially brought 2 aircraft (1 MA-60 series and 1 Harbin Y-12e) only and after wards the corporation had again added another 1 MA-6o and 3 Harbin Y12e.
The income from the 56 seater MA-60 aircraft was around 17.46 crore and had operational cost of 24.13 crore making deficit of 6.67 crore. The income from 17 seater Y12e was 1.55 crore while operational cost was 5.50 crore creating operational deficit of 3.94 crore. The indirect costs from them were around 5.3 crore.
The Harbin Y12e series were aimed to operate in rural areas of the country but the lack of pilots has made it hard to operate even in urban areas. NAC currently operates 6 Chinese aircraft and 2 twin-otters for domestic flight.
In the future plan, NAC will be adding Twin-otter aircraft after removing Chinese aircraft from its fleet.
Kharel informed that Twin-otter aircraft will be bought from Viking Company as it is easy to get spare parts of Twin-otter.
