National flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC)’s first wide-body aircraft Airbus A330-300 with call sign 9N-ALY ‘Annapurna’ is still stranded at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) as the maintenance work is expected to take some more time.
The aircraft was due to come into operation couple of days back but as the necessary equipment for the maintenance has still not been obtained, the aircraft will be still delayed to be back into operation.
An engineer of the corporation stated that the equipment will be brought in couple of days and if everything goes as planned the aircraft might come into operation after another 4-5 days.
The aircraft was grounded couple of weeks ago after the aircraft experienced fault in its brake and avionics cargo door.
The aircraft was previously grounded at Doha Qatar due to problem in braking system. The pilot of the flight had mentioned an abnormality in the aircraft’s brake whereas a Qatar’s aircraft engineer had stated that the problem was in the indicator instead.
Later after repairing the aircraft operated as scheduled and after the same problem was repeated on TIA couple of weeks back, the situation has made the corporation to change the braking system and has been grounded since then for further inspection and maintenance.
The AAR Company which sold A330 will take responsibilities of the cost of changing braking system. According to the purchase agreement, after the new braking system will be connected, the corporation would have to return back old breaking system to AAR Company.
National flag carrier received its first wide-body aircraft A330-243 ‘Annapurna’ with registration ‘9N-ALY’ on June 28, 2018 that started its commercial operation to Doha from 1st August 2018 and expanded its destination. The aircraft powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines features a two-class cabin configuration that will seat a total of 274 passengers—18 in business class and 256 in economy class.
