NAC to sell B-757 aircraft

Kathmandu, April 11

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has issued an auction notice to sell its Boeing 757 aircraft with the minimum bid price at $1.71 million. Interested parties need to submit their bids for the aircraft by April 25.

Manufactured in September 1987, the B-757, which has been operated by NAC since the last 29 years and flown for 86,410 hours, is currently grounded.

The national flag carrier, as per its objective to use only Airbus manufactured aircraft in its international fleet, decided to sell the aircraft instead of bringing back the B-757 into operation after maintenance, as per Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NAC.

According to NAC officials, it is not feasible for NAC to operate old aircraft as it requires frequent maintenance. The aircraft has been currently grounded for the last five months and at least Rs one billion would be required to repair and bring it back to operation.

NAC also has plans to auction the other Boeing aircraft, which is currently in operation, when it requires heavy maintenance. Thereafter, the national flag carrier will have only Airbus aircraft in its international fleet.

As per Kansakar, NAC cannot be competitive by operating two brands of aircraft due to high operation cost as NAC will require two pools of engineers, crew members, and different spare parts for Airbus and

Boeing aircraft.

Currently, NAC has three aircraft — two brand new Airbus plane and one 28-year-old Boeing — in its international fleet covering eight destinations.