Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) in talks to aquire management partner
December 27, 2016-KATHMANDU
As per the information, the directors of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) have heralded formal deliberations to bring in a foreign strategic partner for the handling the management of the company.
The joint secretary of the Tourism Ministry and a board member for NAC, Mr. Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, distinguished that they had talked about in specific, the modality and follows of getting a tactical companion.
The government has allocated budget for the acquiring stragetic partner for Nepal Airlines.
As NAC will be introducing two wide body Airbus A330-200 aircraft into its fleet in the near future and tactics to increase its network, it needs a specialized squad.
The government has been bearing in mind privatizing NAC or bringing in a deliberate partner for the last decade. In 2007, it started a plan to hand over NAC’s management to a foreign strategic partner so that it could change and rescue the troubled carrier. However, the plan demolished. In 1970, the then Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) had requested specialists from Air France to escalate management, and then they handled most of the administrative positions until 1973. In 1972, RNAC included its first jet, a Boeing 727, in collaboration with the French carrier.
Last August, NAC Managing Director Mr. Sugat Ratna Kansakar said that they were holding unceremonious stake sale talks with a Middle Eastern airline in Dubai. He said that executives from a Middle Eastern airline had visited him in Kathmandu for ‘casual talks’ about acquiring shares in NAC.
The Finance Ministry has on diverse occasions informed the Tourism Ministry to induct strategic partners to improve the state-owned company’s overall organization performance.
Last September, 21 foreign firms comprising Lufthansa Consulting and Airbus had succumbed letters of intent to provide world class management consultancy services to NAC. The national flag carrier had asked for letters of intent to expand its overall system performance by inducting a management consultancy service provider in the first phase, and handing over management in the second phase.
Under the bid, NAC had planned to conduct a gap inquiry to recognize its inadequacies. The gap inquiry epoch will last a month and NAC will have to pay a fee of 295,000 euros for the service.
In the second phase, the establishment will take over NAC’s management. It will employ its own people to top management posts like chief executive officer, chief financial officer and chief marketing officer. However, the plan chopped apart after the Finance Ministry presented unwillingness to fund the project.
In 2015, NAC’s market share on international courses stood at 7.88 percent, up from 5.87 percent in 2014. The carrier saw the sturdiest passenger growth after it added two A320 aircraft to its fleet.
