Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) Tuesday celebrated its golden jubilee against a backdrop of falling performance.
Inaugurating the celebration, chief secretary Bhoj Raj Ghimire said the airline lay on its deathbed. “A new dose of life has to be injected into it if it is to survive,” he said.
The troubled corporation is operating one single aircraft on international routes as its management could not get its other plane maintained on time while it “scouted for commission”.
The craft has been stuck in Brunei for the last 11 months as its return to Kathmandu kept getting postponed.
“In the history of NAC, I have never seen such frequent cancellations of international flights like during this year,” Shishir Sharma, a NAC captain, said.
The corporation is fast losing out on bookings to other airlines. Average occupancy during the past month was around 50 percent, said a NAC official.
In the mid-1990s, NAC owned four Boeings and 12 other aircraft including Twin Otters and Avros that were used on domestic flights. The fleet has been slashed to one operational Boeing and two to three Twin Otters.
Speaking at the celebration, NAC managing director K B Limbu said there was enough market and manpower, but it was unable to provide service because of lack
of aircraft. We are working on rearranging our routes on the basis of profitability, he added.
He said the airline carried 105,091 passengers in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.
Inaugurating the celebration, chief secretary Bhoj Raj Ghimire said the airline lay on its deathbed. “A new dose of life has to be injected into it if it is to survive,” he said.
The troubled corporation is operating one single aircraft on international routes as its management could not get its other plane maintained on time while it “scouted for commission”.
The craft has been stuck in Brunei for the last 11 months as its return to Kathmandu kept getting postponed.
“In the history of NAC, I have never seen such frequent cancellations of international flights like during this year,” Shishir Sharma, a NAC captain, said.
The corporation is fast losing out on bookings to other airlines. Average occupancy during the past month was around 50 percent, said a NAC official.
In the mid-1990s, NAC owned four Boeings and 12 other aircraft including Twin Otters and Avros that were used on domestic flights. The fleet has been slashed to one operational Boeing and two to three Twin Otters.
Speaking at the celebration, NAC managing director K B Limbu said there was enough market and manpower, but it was unable to provide service because of lack
of aircraft. We are working on rearranging our routes on the basis of profitability, he added.
He said the airline carried 105,091 passengers in the first 10 months of the current fiscal year.
The Kathmandu Post 02 july 2008
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