The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has planned to separate domestic and international flight operations of national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) into 2 division due to the continuous loss being suffered.
Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari said the ministry has decided to divide management of domestic and international operation of NAC to rationalize overall operation of the corporation. The plan was forwarded as it will be helpful for overall management and help to increase competitiveness in domestic and international market and the process is set to be concluded in next 6-8 months.
As per initial plan of the ministry, international flight segment will be led by general manager and domestic by deputy general manager of corporation. Suresh Acharya, joint secretary and head of the Aviation Industry Management Division of MoCTCA stated that the plan was made after the ministry have been facing problems with management and handling flights of the national flag carrier.
The proposal had also been sent to corporations’ board 2 months back and the board has has also asked to separate all duties, liabilities and income-expenses balance-sheets as per the individual segments and the corporations management has also said they will soon start the process of separating the domestic and international flight wings.
Managing Director of NAC, Sugat Ratna Kansakar said that the planning to separate national and international division was a long running plan and as MoCTCA has taken issue seriously the process will soon be completed.
Currently, Government is planning to bring in strategic financial partner for the corporation as the financial performance of the corporation is falling far behind for many years. NAC lately took delivery of a 274-seater Airbus 330-200 series wide-body aircraft on Thursday to expand its fleet and next one is scheduled to arrive next month. NAC has also decided to purchase two more Airbus 320-200 series narrow-body aircraft and six Twin Otter aircraft. The narrow-body Airbus aircraft will likely to acquire by the end of 2019.
NAC currently has one Airbus 330-200 series aircraft, two Airbus 320-200 series aircraft and one Boeing 757 aircraft for international flights. Likewise, for domestic flights, NAC has four China-made Y12e and two MA 60 aircraft and three Twin Otter aircraft.
