NAC’s Y-12e awaits clearance to fly to mountain airfields

KATHMANDU, NOV 13 -

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will have to wait for at least two months to serve remote sectors with its newly acquired Y-12e due to its regulatory limit. However, the carrier will be able to operate flights to Tumlingtar, Janakpur, Bharatpur and Pokhara with this plane from November 20 as the regulation does not apply to these destinations.

NAC Managing Director Madan Kharel told the parliamentary International Relations and Labour Committee on Wednesday that as per the Chinese aircraft’s specifications, it can fly to airports with a maximum grade of up to 2 percent or about 1.2 degrees of slope.

“Due to this regulatory limit, the aircraft manufacturer has to issue a certificate allowing the aircraft to fly airports with a gradient or slope of 2 degrees,” he said, adding that a Chinese engineer had been hired to assess the limit.

For example, US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) utility airport design standards allow maximum grades of up 1.2 degrees of slope of the runway for the Y-12e, but the runway of Tenzing-Hillary Airport at Lukla has an 11-degree slope. Most of the short take-off and landing (STOL) airfields in Nepal including Lukla in Khumbu are above the regulatory limit. NAC took delivery of the Chinese-made 18-seater plane on November 3 as part of a six-aircraft deal between Nepal and China.

The Y-12 or Yunshuji-12 is a twin-engine light multi-role aircraft designed and developed by Harbin Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation of China. The Y12-e is an advanced model and was certified by the FAA on August 2, 2006. The Y-12e is powered by PT6A-135A engines. It received Type Certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2002. The aircraft made its first flight in August 2001. The Y-12e currently flies in more than 15 countries.

“As soon as the aircraft manufacturer issues the gradient certificate, we will be flying to all the remote airports,” Kharel said. Although the Harbin Yunshuji Y-12-II has made thousands of flights all over Nepal and has been described as the best aircraft to serve STOL airfields, strict enforcement of new regulations by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal to ensure safety has prevented the Y-12e from flying to mountain airstrips.

Before the new rules came into effect, aircraft used to be allowed to operate anywhere after fulfilling a certain procedure like conducting a test flight. “We cannot compromise on air safety unless the regulator clears the way, and it will require at least two months to complete the process,” Kharel told lawmakers.

Tourism Minister Deepak Chandra Amatya and NAC officials had been summoned by the committee to provide a report on the latest development of the Chinese-made aircraft and NAC’s business plan to operate them. The committee’s concern was prompted by public criticism that NAC could not fly the aircraft gifted by China. Earlier, another aircraft received from China, the MA60, which arrived in Kathmandu on April 27, was forced to take an extended rest at TIA as NAC officials scrambled to get various documents in order, of which they said they were not aware as requirements had changed in the 27 years since they last acquired new planes.

Minister Amatya said that due to technical reasons, NAC had not been able to bring the aircraft from China on time, and even after it reached Nepal, lack of instructor pilots and the aircraft deregistration process delayed their flying schedule.

“Learning from past mistakes, we have made efforts to bring the rest of the aircraft on order from China—three-Y12e and an MA60—in four months, and this time there will be no hassles.”

House panel questions different airfares

The parliamentary International Relations and Labour Committee on Wednesday questioned the difference in the tariffs of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) and private carriers and directed the government to loo into the matter immediately.

Lawmakers said that the airfares charged by private carriers on all the sectors were twice as high as those charged by NAC, and ordered the Tourism Ministry to explain the disparity.

The committee also ordered the ministry to expand air services in remote areas by making sure that private carrier increased their frequency as per the agreement to serve such sectors. Responding to the lawmakers, Shadhu Ram Sapkota, joint secretary of the ministry, said that the government should subsidize both NAC and private airlines to encourage them to serve remote destinations.

“As private airlines invest millions of rupees to buy aircraft by borrowing money from banks, they cannot afford to serve these loss-making remote destinations fully,” he said. “Hence, government subsidies will be an alternative to encourage them to do so, otherwise enforcing such requirements will make them go bankrupt.

Source: The Kathmandu Post