Ethiopian Airlines craft to airlift ATF to KTM from today

"We have signed an agreement with Petrolemax to airlift ATF through Ethiopian Airlines from Monday. Till now, Ethiopian Airlines has agreed upon to bring 6,000 kiloliters of ATF within 15 days," Pradip Kumar Yadav, aviation fuel in-charge at NOC, said. According to him, ATF will cost Rs 180 per liter and after adding customs duty and VAT, airlines can buy it at Rs 232 per liter. Even though preparations have been made to house Ethiopian Airline's Boeing 777, international airlines operating in Nepal say managing a parking bay would be a problem as there are only three parking bays here that can accommodate wide-body aircraft. Till date, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) had been airlifting ATF using its Boeing 757. Ram Hari Sharma, spokesperson of NAC, says NAC has been airlifting 44,000 liters daily and will continue to do so until NOC requires it. "We have been conducting two flights a day to airlift ATF from Kolkata as the demand has increased," Sharma said. NAC has been airlifting ATF since October 8 in a bid to resolve the fuel shortage faced by domestic airline companies. The daily fuel demand of domestic airlines is 50,000 liters. However, international airlines have been carrying ATF themselves through technical landing at different cities. Bharat Kumar Shrestha, president of Airlines Operators' Committee-Nepal (AOC-N), says that even though Ethiopian Airlines has planned to airlift ATF, international airlines have to manage it themselves as NOC has issued a Notice to Airmen (NoTAM) to international airlines saying that they will be unable to provide ATF till December 15. "We are currently operating under a huge loss. We have been requesting the government to come up with some relief packages such as reducing ground-handling charges or airport charges for certain period but they have turned deaf ear to our requests," Shrestha said.