Blame Game and Now: Grounded Planes
From the recent reports, the passengers landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) always criticize about ground handling services being provided for years by the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC). But according to the expert’s claim, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is equally to blame for poor ground handling. The NAC has been facing all the liability with CAAN not even paying proper attention to regular repair and maintenance.
CAAN is also to blame for the problems in claiming luggage. It has even failed to repair a conveyor belt in the past one and half years. NAC Spokesperson Ramhari Sharma complains that the NAC is unfairly blamed for all the problems.
With over half a dozen international airlines complainsfiled to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation about substandard service and high fees. “CAAN takes 12 percent of the income while we struggle to even manage staff expenses,” Sharma claims.
CAAN has repeatedly tried to hand over ground handling to a competitive company citing pressure by international airlines due to substandard service provided by the NAC. Sharma claims that problems from those related to toilets to luggage are created to offend the NAC that earns Rs 2 billion a year from ground handling. However, NAC claimsthe company only makes a profit of around Rs 150 million after cutting staff and repair expenses, and fees paid to CAAN.
But who is to blame, the CAAN or the depicting weakness of the NAC management. These are just a few examples depicting weaknesses of the NAC management. The Airbus A320 that arrived in February with enchanting fanfare, has been grounded since this Saturday after problem in its distance measuring equipment (DME) and failure to change air filter. The quality control section under the NAC’s engineering department is responsible for that. The plane has been grounded with the section not updating the minimum equipment list (MEL) system that it had to update immediately after arrival of the plane. “Problems arise from time to time as all technical things in the new plane have not been sorted. Everything will gradually fall in place,” NAC Spokesperson Ramhari Sharma says.
Image courtesy: Kathmandu2day
