Kathmandu, August 24

Though Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) decided to sell its remaining Boeing aircraft quite some time back, it has not received any response from prospective buyers.

The national flag carrier had called a tender notice for auction of the Boeing aircraft named ‘Karnali’ on June 26 setting a 45-day time limitation for proposal submission. However, NAC is struggling to receive any proposals from any airline company or individual person.

The first deadline for submitting proposals to NAC expired on August 9. After it did not receive even a single proposal, the national flag carrier published a second notice for the auction on August 14 extending the tender time for 15 more days.

It has already been 10 days since the tender notice was republished, however, this time too NAC has not received any applications so far, said Ganesh Kumar Chand, spokesperson for the corporation. “Since we did not receive any application when we published the notice the first time, we decided to republish the tender notice again but this time too we have not yet received any proposals,” he said.

NAC has set Rs 875 million, excluding taxes, as the minimum price for the 32-year-old aircraft. Karnali, which was purchased in 1987, has the capacity to carry 190 passengers. Prior to this, NAC had sold its first Boeing 757 – 200 9N-ACA aircraft through auction to a Nepali airline company called BB Airways. The first Boeing had touched down in Kathmandu in 1972. With a capacity to carry 123 passengers, it connected Kathmandu with regional destinations and remained in service until 1993.

Once the second Boeing is also auctioned, NAC will have a fleet comprising 13 aircraft, of which two are MA 60, four Y12E, two Airbus A320-200 narrow-body and two Airbus A330-200 wide-body and three Twin Otters. Meanwhile, NAC is also

planning to bring six new Twin Otter aircraft and replace the existing three Twin Otter planes.

Meanwhile, with the acquisition of the two new Airbus wide-body aircraft, NAC has started procedures to operate commercial flights to Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and Korea. NAC is also conducting a market study to operate flights to Vietnam, Bangladesh and Colombo at present.

Currently, the national flag carrier is operating international flights to Dubai,

New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangkok and Qatar.