Officials from Buddha Air have departed to Paris today to take the delivery of an additional ATR-72 aircraft. Spokesperson for the airline Mr. Santosh Khati said, “The team departing to France will inspect and test the aircraft and bring the aircraft by the end of the month.”
Teams including 2 flight crews, 1 operational staff, 2 B1/B2 Licensed Engineer, 1 Quality Assurance Staff, 1 Airworthiness Staff and one official from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) are heading to France for receiving the aircraft.
After the inspection, the officials and team members will be back with the aircraft via different routes starting from France to Australia and finally back to Kathmandu from Pattaya within 25/26 of January. The added aircraft will come into operation after 3 months after its arrival and will be used to enhance its operational capacity and will be operating in currently scheduled places.
The company will also procure another additional ATR 72 and its arrival will be finalized by March-April 2018. After the addition of both aircraft one will be used for scheduled flights whereas the other will be standby to cope up with the delay and maintenance problems the airline might face.
Currently, Buddha Air owns two Beechcraft 1900D, three ATR 42-320, and four ATR 72-500 aircraft which operates to Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, Dhangadhi, Janakpur, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Simara, Tumlingtar, Bhadrapur and Bharatpur. It also operates one-hour-long Mountain sightseeing flights.
