Turkish Parking Fees reaches 17 Million.
The parking fees of crashed Turkish Airlines Airbus 330 aircraft resting on the Northern space of Tribhuvan International airport is costing Rupees 17.1 Million since it crashed 14 months ago till Saturday last week. The parking cost for this crippled aircraft costs only 25% of the parking cost that an operating aircraft has to pay, according to an advocate Bhola Guragai of the Kathmandu Airport.
Turkish Airlines has already concluded about not repairing its crashed aircraft which had a value of Rupees 26 Billion on purchase. Since this aircraft will not ever fly in the sky again, the parts of the airplane that can be used on other aircraft will be taken back to Istanbul as per the decision inside the airlines. The dispute regarding the parking fees of Turkish Airlines came to an end only after the cost of the disabled aircraft was imposed according to the decision of the Authorities and now the Airlines is liable to pay only the parking cost calculated as 25% cost for disabled aircraft.
The dispute started when the airport presented bill of average 200 Thousand Rupees per day after the crash against Turkish Airlines office in Kathmandu. The customs department of airport imposed an amount of 1 thousand 840 USD and additional 13% VAT per day as parking charge of the aircraft. This high amount of fees created the dispute and the airline authorities were in dilemma whether to repair the aircraft or leave it there after getting the insurance payment of the aircraft.
Turkish demanded the revisions on the parking fees denoting that the aircraft is disabled claiming that the registration of the aircraft has already been cancelled. Thus issue reached Civil Aviation of Nepal where no conclusion was made and hence the case file of Turkish parking fee returned back to the airport again. And finally Director of the airport Devananda Upadhyaya fixed the issue by letting Turkish Airlines pay only 25% of the total fees amount commenting on the fixation of decision of ex Director of Airport about imposing the total parking fees. With it Turkish has already initiated the payment process. Also this cleared way for the insurance company to manage the crashed airplane.
Now Turkish Airlines now will need to pay 460 USD daily parking fee and a total of 520 USD (55 thousand Nepali Rupees) with 13% VAT included and the four months duration during the investigation period of the crash will not be levied any charge as the aircraft will be in charge of Nepal Government during the inspection period. The parking fee will be imposed only the day after the inspection reports is made, one official from the airport said. The parking fee after the inspection reached 17.1 Million Rupees till Saturday he added.
The damaged aircraft now lies on the Northern Helipad side of the airport. The plane weighing 100 Thousand Kilograms obstructed the operations in the helipad because of which Turkish Airlines build another helipad on the space behind it. The construction cost was 30 Million. The helipad occupies space of 44 Hundred Square Meters, which was handed over to Director Upadhyaya last Tuesday only. This helipad has capacity of parking 8 helicopters and this was provided for free by the Turkish Airlines to the airport.
The plane crash landed on Kathmandu Airport due to an obstructed visibility skidding aside of the runway centerline between the runway and third taxiway causing the operation of the airport to be shut for 4 days resulting trouble for about 48 Thousand passengers traveling to and from this airport in 4 days. The plane that carried 224 passengers crash landed early morning of March 4, 14 months ago, reporting no casualties
