The national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has asked the Finance Ministry to make the payment of the two remaining Chinese-made Harbin Y12e aircraft via Tourism Ministry. The final delivery payment amounts to 30 percent of the total cost of the aircraft.
NAC signed a commercial agreement with AVIC, a Chinese government undertaking, to purchase six aircraft which are two 56-seater MA60 and four Y12e in November 2012. China has already provided one MA60 and one Y12e worth Rs2.94 billion as gifts in 2014. The other aircraft were bought with Rs3.72 billion soft loan provided by China’s EXIM Bank.
Currently, NAC owns two MA 60 and two Harbin Y12e out of the six aircraft under agreement with AVIC. The corporation has started working to procure the remaining two Chinese aircraft for which instructor pilot, captains and copilots are being prepared.
NAC is expected to dispatch its technical team to China for inspecting the aircraft after Finance Ministry requests EXIM bank of China to release the payment to the aircraft manufacturer.
The corporation previously delayed the procurement of two remaining Y12e aircraft stating the insufficiency of flight crews. NAC signed the purchase contract for the aircraft on 2012 committing to land the entire aircraft to Nepal by the end of 2013 but only two MA-6o and two Harbin Y-12e have been acquired till now.
After the arrival of remaining two Y12e, NAC’s total fleet for domestic flights will increase to nine-3 Twin Otter DHC, 2 Xian MA 60 and four Harbin Y12e.
