Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is set to step into full airbus era by phasing out the only remaining Boeing aircraft in its fleet.
The corporations only left vintage Boeing 757 with call sign ‘9N-ACB’ Gandaki was retired after 31 years of service on March and has been operating international flights with Airbus aircraft.
The aircraft is set to be auctioned and the airline will undergo tender process.
The corporation has stated to call for tender within a week so as to sell the aircraft. Corporation has also made financial evaluation of the aircraft and was reported that the aircraft maintenance cost was expensive and its operation was not viable thus the corporation is now set to auction the aircraft.
The only left vintage Boeing 757 ‘9N-ACB’ Gandaki had been operating 3 weekly flights in Malaysia and Delhi at its final days of operation and was sent for repair and maintenance at the end of October last year and encountered defect in its windshield while returning in mid-January. Since then the aircraft has not been operating and was grounded even though the problem was secured.
The combi-aircraft was purchased back in 1988 while the 1st 757 with registration ‘9N-ACA’ nicknamed ‘Karnali’ was brought in 1987 with the purpose of operating long haul and then operated it for more than 30 years.
Karnali’ has already been sold to BB Airways last year aircraft to operate international cargo flights. The aircraft still stays grounded inside premises of TIA with its future unknown as the failure of the company to bring the aircraft back in operation ended the hope for it to fly again and the aircraft is now waiting to be scrapped after its 3 decades dedicate service to Nepal Airlines.
The corporation decided to sell Boeing 757 stating need of extra human resource to operate and maintain aircraft of 2 different companies and Airbus being relatively easy to operate and maintain.
When the Boeing 757 ‘9N-ACB’, the last Boeing aircraft of NAC, gets sold, it will mark the end of the Boeing era in Nepal that began nearly five decades ago.
NAC with its Boeing operated flights to London, Paris, Frankfurt, Dubai and SAARC countries including Maldives, Colombo, Dhaka, Karachi, Myanmar, Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Osaka, Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Mumbai.
