April 18: The state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has formed a seven-member sub-committee under the coordination of Captain Sudhir Samsher Rai to initiate the process of purchasing small aircraft.

The NAC’s management committee had earlier submitted a report with suggestion to purchase three small aircraft in order to increase air connectivity to remote areas.

The NAC said that the sub-committee was formed to implement the same report.

It has been learnt that the new aircraft will be purchased from NAC’s  internal resources and the sub-committee will play a role in making the purchase transparent.

The NAC has maintained that the addition of aircraft will make it easier to provide services to passengers in remote areas. It will also promote tourism and help reduce the airfare.

It may be noted that the NAC had decided to ground six of its aircraft bought from China on July 30, 2020 due to the high cost of operating those planes.

A board meeting of NAC had decided to permanently ground the Chinese aircraft effective from July 30, 2020 due to the high cost of operation and maintenance as well as other factors such as high cost of training for pilots and unavailability of spare parts.

Back then, the NAC board was heavily criticized for purchasing the aircraft under political pressure without conducting proper assessment.

Meanwhile, the government had recently formed a committee to carry out a study of the structural and managerial aspects of the state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).   

The five-member committee was formed under the chairmanship of former Nepal Rastra Bank Governor Dipendra Bahadur Chhetri. Captain Om Gurung, mediaperson Tikaram Rai, chartered accountant Piyus Anand and Sahara Neupane are members of the committee.   

The committee will prepare a report following the study and submit it to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation along with recommendations. The NAC carries a debt of nearly Rs 50 billion incurred after buying new planes.   

The NAC currently operates with two wide-body A330 and two narrow-body A320 aircraft for international flights and two Twin-Otter planes for domestic flights.