-KATHMANDU
ATR 72-500 aircraft bought by Buddha Air landed today 5:50 PM local time at Tribhuvan International Airport. The ATR 72-500 series aircraft is a twin-engine turboprop short-haul regional aircraft manufactured jointly by France-Italy.
According to the Airline Officials, the aircraft had departed from Francazal Airport at Toulouse, France on 1st of July and was en-route Italy, Egypt, Oman and Kathmandu, as desired air route. Buddha Air expects to put the 11th turboprop aircraft into commercial operation as soon as possible within a month.
The aircraft was under command of Captain Pramod Thapa and Captain Rabi Shrestha. Teams including flight crews, Operational Manager, Operation staff, B1/B2 Licensed Engineer, Quality Assurance Staff, Airworthiness Staff and official from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) were jointly in the team for receiving the additional aircraft. The aircraft has also been allocated with Nepalese registration ‘9N-AMU’ to carry its ferry flight.
After the addition of the new ATR-72, the company will have altogether 11 aircraft in its fleet. After the arrival of new aircraft, it will be easy for us to conduct timely-flights and repair other aircraft when required without affecting passengers, noted airline officials. The 10.8 Year ATR 72-212A ‘9N-AMU’ was previously operated by Air Calédonie and later was sold to Kingfisher Airlines in India. ATR aircraft are considered cost-effective, environment friendly and less noisy as compared to other aircraft.
Established on 23 April 1996, with a fleet of a Beechcraft 1900D manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft (now Hawker Beechcraft) is a largest airline operator of Nepal today with a fleet of 11 aircraft, an employee base of 850, occupies 63 percent market share of domestic flights and is operating domestics as well as international service.
