Three Chinese manufactured Harbin Y-12e aircraft belonging to the national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) are currently grounded resulting cancellation of flights to the remote destinations, thus generating loss for the carrier.
The Short Takeoff and Landing (STOL) flights have been affected for more than 10 days. As per the information, delay in the arrival of spare parts for the maintenance of Y-12e and insufficiency of instructor pilot has resulted the grounding of 3 aircraft at the NAC’s hangar.
The national flag carrier has required pilots for Y-12e. However, there is shortage of spare parts and instructor pilot.
Besides, NAC’s another Chinese aircraft Xian MA-60 is also grounded at TIA and is expected to continue flight operation after 3-4 days. Out of 4 Y-12e, one has been grounded for more than a year. Likewise, one Twin Otter DHC-6-300 is also grounded since a year ago.
NAC says that the maintenance of Twin Otter aircraft will require some time as the corporation has to wait in queue for the servicing.
The Chinese aircraft are experiencing difficult situation for conducting regular flights due to the unavailability of spare parts and instructor pilots.
At present, NAC conducts domestic flights to Lukla, Simikot, Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, Dhangadhi, Nepalgunj and Bhadrapur with its one MA60 aand two Twin Otters.
