Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), the national flag carrier has planned to dispatch one pilot and three co-pilots to China for essential training purpose of Harbin Y-12e aircraft.
The Chinese aircraft which was bought with Chinese government loan have been grounded for long period in Tribhuvan International Airport. The management team of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has promised to bring the grounded Chinese aircraft in operation within 10 days to Honorable Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Mr. Rabindra Adhikari.
In the aim of bringing the grounded aircraft into operation, the corporation has decided to train four pilots. Sugat Ratna Kansakar, Managing Director of NAC stated that they will leave for China on Friday evening.
Senior Captain, Uddhav Ghimire with a team of co-pilots: Prachanda Khadka, Bijay Aware and Rakesh Kafle will depart for training.
According to senior captain, Uddhav Ghimire, the team will return to Nepal after two days of training. Captain Ghimire has not been able to operate the aircraft due to license failure. As per the existing rule, the license must be renewed in every six months as the part of Pilot Proficiency Check (PPC).
In such circumstances, Ghimire must only renew the license by re-training. Captain Ghimire said that after the first training, he will work on renewing license.
All 4 Harbin Y-12 E aircraft are grounded at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) since first week of March. This has caused huge financial loss to the corporation and the question has risen against the capability of corporations’ management.
Currently, NAC has six Chinese aircraft; 4 Harbin Y-12e and 2 Xian MA-60. Four out of them are in out of operations due to lack of pilots. For this, NAC has prepared to bring pilots from China. However, the Chinese pilots have demanded huge salary. Initially talks with 3 pilots were done but 2 are only interested to come to Nepal for salary of $9000 per month.
