Troubled by the quality and efficiency of China-made airplanes, Nepal Airlines has decided to sell five of its Chinese planes, grounded for more than two years. The final decision was taken by the loss-making national carrier after no one came forward to lease the planes.
“We didn’t get a single bid during the extended time either. Now, the management has decided to sell them off,” said a spokesperson of Nepal Airlines.
“It may take two to three weeks to appoint the assessor. Based on the assessor’s report, we will float a global tender to sell the planes.”
Three 17-seater Y12e and two 56-seater MA60 aircraft were acquired by Nepal Airlines, eight years ago amid much fanfare. The main goal was to fly the planes on underserved mountain routes. However, soon, mechanical and technical troubles started to creep up rather routinely in the airplanes.
According to the airline company, such was the situation that the aircraft spent more time on the ground than in the air, causing heavy losses.
Consequently, for the last two years, the five planes have been sitting and gathering dust in the remote parking bay on the eastern side of Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.
Earlier this year, a source had told WION that the Chinese airplanes required pilots with specific skills that the airline did not have at its disposal.
“We have been facing technical problems in functioning of these aircrafts. The spare parts are not easily available and repairing aircrafts is expensive and time taking. To fly these planes, pilots with specific skills are required which we are short of. There are pilots in China but due to language barrier training pilots in Nepal is not possible,” said the source.
Additionally, China had refused to help the Nepalese side on the matter.
“We did approach China for help but nothing has been initiated from their side yet. The board of directors of Nepal Airlines hold meeting on a daily basis to discuss on training Nepalese pilots but we are yet to take a decision on that.”
Nepal Airlines wanted to get rid of the defunct Chinese airplanes much earlier but the bureaucratic hassle meant they had to hold onto them. Experts believe that even after putting the airplanes up for sale, the airline may not get a lot of takers.
(With inputs from agencies)
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