February 7: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), which invited tender bids for the sale of five Chinese aircraft on December 21, has issued the tender bids again after being unable to find any buyer. The state-owned NAC called for tender bids again on Tuesday for the sale of its Chinese airplanes which have been grounded since last year.

Last year too, the NAC had sought proposals for leasing the Chinese aircraft. After failing to find any company interested to lease the aircraft, the NAC started the process to sell those aircraft. The NAC had to call for tender bids for the second time after no one showed interest in buying the aircraft in the first tender call.

NAC Spokesperson Ramesh Paudel informed New Business Age that the tender was issued again after they did not receive any proposal within the specified period. Applicants interested in purchasing the grounded Chinese aircraft need to submit proposals to the NAC by February 21.

The Government of Nepal welcomed the first lot of Chinese aircraft about ten years ago in April/May 2014. The government received two Chinese aircraft with a grant from China and purchased four of them with a loan. The NAC received MA-60 and Y-12E aircraft each under the grant of the Chinese government. Another MA-60 and three Y-12E aircraft were purchased on loan at subsidized interest rate. The government purchased the aircraft under an agreement to repay the loan within 20 years including a grace period of seven years. The government spent more than Rs 4 billion in several installments for the purchase of these aircraft.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Sudan Kirati revealed during a recent event that the government has to pay Rs 200 million a year for insurance and parking fee for those grounded aircraft. "It is not possible to find out how and why the Chinese aircraft were purchased," he said, adding, “How much more debt shall we pay?”

The NAC had to start paying installments of the loan from October/November 2021. One year later, the NAC started the evaluation process of the aircraft in November/December 2022 for the sale of the aircraft. At that time, the Ministry of Finance had given the option of either selling or renting the aircraft. However, no one was interested in hiring those aircraft. No one is either interested in purchasing the aircraft.

Meanwhile, the NAC also issued international tender bids on Tuesday to take two narrow-body aircraft on wet lease under which the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) will be managed by the interested party.

The NAC, which has been providing air services with two wide-body and two narrow-body aircraft, has invited tender bids to take two more narrow-body aircraft on wet lease. According to the press statement issued by the NAC on Tuesday, the flag-carrier of Nepal started the process for acquiring more aircraft because it has not been able to meet the demand for flights with its existing narrow-body aircraft.

According to the NAC, currently two wide-body aircraft are being used for flights to Japan, Sydney and Korea. "In other sectors, two narrow-body aircraft have not been able to handle the demand of flight pressure," the statement reads, adding, "There is a plan to increase the income by adding flights to New Delhi, Dubai, Doha, Malaysia and other sectors and also to other destinations from Bhairahawa."