The national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is desperate in wet leasing one aircraft for smooth flow of international flight operation however; certain circumstances have been delaying the wet lease approach of NAC.
Some controversies have been arising on the age of the Airbus A319 aircraft as Bhutan Airlines has been operating the A319 for more than 15 years but the Corporation is waiting for the approval from Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation to get a go-ahead. The Ministry on the other hand informed that they would only decide after NAC comes up with its detail financial briefings.
NAC is expected to bear hefty loss following the absence of its Boeing 757 ‘9N-ACB’. Wet lease option will not benefit but will decrease NAC’s financial pressure to some extent. The corporation is pretty sure that the wet lease of one A319 from Bhutan Airlines will protect its superiority and minimize losses.
The Spokesperson of NAC Rabindra Shrestha said, “NAC is trying to wet lease one A319 from Bhutan Airlines especially for minimizing losses not for the benefit.” The controversies related to the age of the aircraft should not hamper us as it is the aircraft operating scheduled flight till now and we are leasing it for a short period, he added.
Currently, NAC has terminated the ticket sales for New Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Bangalore and Doha and the sales will resume after the successful wet lease.
NAC’s Boeing 757 ‘9N-ACB’ departed Singapore for scheduled C-Check which is expected to last for a minimum of one and half month. Another vintage Boeing 757 ‘9N-ACA’ is under the process of being auctioned so, the corporation is preparing to wet lease one Airbus A319 from Bhutan Airlines to continue the smooth flow of regular flight operation and release pressure on the Airbus A320s.
NAC received sealed bid from two companies to wet lease of one A319/A320/A321 aircraft. Bhutan Air and Ukraine’s Star Aviation delivered their interest in providing one of the aircraft to NAC as a wet lease. The bid arrived only after second tender notice as there was none at the first one. As Ukraine’s Star Aviation approached with hefty wet lease agreement so, NAC preferred Bhutan Airlines.
