Kathmandu, December 3:

The Nepal Airlines Corporation’s (NAC) plan to buy a wide-bodied and a narrow-bodied aircraft will soon be translated into reality.

Tourism Minister Pradip Gyawali and Tourism Secretary as well as NAC’s board chairman Madhav Ghimire claimed the plan will definitely take concrete shape soon.

Purchasing a wide-bodied aircraft and another narrow-bodied aircraft will definitely translate into reality soon, the duo said in unison.

The panel formed 15 days ago, under the leadership of Nepal Airlines Corporation deputy managing director of Krishna Bahadur Poudel, to study the purchase of two aircraft, is scheduled to present its report in a month’s time after which the process for buying the aircraft will move ahead in full swing, said Ghimire.

On the issues of irregularities that have occurred in the past whenever NAC purchased any aircraft, Ghimire said: “We will make the purchasing process of two aircraft very transparent and we will weed out possibilities of corruption in the deals.” He was addressing a press meet organised by the NAC here today.

Admitting that NAC has lost its reputation in the aviation sector, Ghimire said: “There can’t be any alternative to the NAC than restructuring it.” The World Bank has shown keen interest to aid NAC in its reform, according to him.

Minister Gyawali said the government was committed to reviving the airline by improving its overall management and restructuring the airline.

Ghimire acknowledged that the use of Boeings for overseas trips during the royal regime was damaging to the corporation’s regular business as it was forced to cancel its scheduled flights.

The government has already paid Rs 40.86 million for the royal trips abroad but is yet to pay about Rs 40 million more, said Gautam Das Shrestha, managing director of NAC.

NAC Board member Keshav Prasad Bhattarai presented the NAC white paper, for the first time in the airline’s history.

The paper said NAC is overstaffed with a total of 1,509 employees. Taking into account its two Boeing 757s and four operational Twin Otters, there are 251.5 staff per aircraft.

NAC’s liability is over Rs 1.63 billion, and its net asset is over Rs 7.95 billion.

As against the popular belief that NAC always runs into loss, NAC’s profits in 2005-2006 stood at Rs 340.9 million.

In a bid to discourage pilots and experts from quitting the ailing airline, Ghimire said they have been personally requesting the skilled experts not to leave the NAC.