Tourism Minister asks NAC to submit jet purchase plan
KATHMANDU, JUL 02 - Tourism Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya on Tuesday directed Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) to submit a proposal to buy two wide-body and two narrow-body aircraft to the ministry within 15 days. He also ordered the state-owned carrier to proceed with its plan to ask China for a gift of another six aircraft .
“Demand for air seats has been growing rapidly in Nepal, and NAC should be able to tap the market,” he said addressing the airline’s 56th anniversary function. Acharya added that the ministry had told NAC two months ago to go ahead with its plan to buy aircraft but there had been no response. He ordered the NAC board to endorse the proposal immediately and send it to the ministry. As per the 10-year business plan prepared by the ailing national flag carrier to recover its health, it would buy two narrow-body aircraft by 2016 and two wide-body aircraft by 2017. The business plan has been sent to the ministry for its approval after being okayed by the NAC board.
The carrier presently operates two ageing Boeing 757s on its international routes. It will be adding two Airbus A300-200 jets to its fleet by April 2015.
Regarding its domestic fleet, it will be adding six Chinese-made aircraft —two MA60 and four Y12e . The airline took delivery of a 56-seater MA60 on April 27. The other planes on order are scheduled to arrive by October.
Acharya said that the international airline business in Nepal had crossed the Rs 100 billion mark and that NAC should not remain idle in such a fast-moving business. Speaking at the same occasion, NAC Managing Director Madan Kharel said that the corporation needed to plan early to obtain four new aircraft for its international fleet within three years. NAC has projected its earning to swell to $ 504 million by 2024 under its turnaround plan.
After getting nine aircraft for its international fleet, the corporation has envisaged carrying 1.54 million international passengers annually and securing 27 percent of the aviation market in the next 10 years. “We have projected profits of $ 57 million by 2024,” Kharel said.
In the domestic sector, NAC plans to operate 16 aircraft and fly 139,249 passengers annually by 2024. At present, NAC’s passenger share in the international sector stands at 6.8 percent. The carrier flew 213,837 passengers out of the 3.14 million fliers in the international sector in 2013.
The carrier’s domestic share stands at a paltry 1.33 percent. Last year, NAC flew 20,591 passengers out of the 1.54 million flyers in the domestic sector.
Ministry advises NAC to build maintenance hangar
Tourism Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya has said that Nepal Airlines Corporation could carry out high level maintenance such as C and D checks in Nepal, and that it had asked the corporation to submit a plan to the ministry to establish maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities. The NAC spends millions of dollars annually for C, D and other checks outside the country, and it is necessary to set up a maintenance hangar here to cut such expenses, said Acharya. Besides, the maintenance hanger can provide service to other international airlines serving Nepal, he said, adding that a number of donor agencies had expressed willingness to assist the government to establish such aircraft repair facilities.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
