Nepal Airlines Corporation to Add 13 Large Aircraft

Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has come up with a roadmap to acquire 13 large planes in the next five years. Among the thirteen, five will be wide-body and eight will be narrow-body planes.

Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NAC informed that the NAC’s executive committee had approved of the five-year plan to expand the presence of the airlines in the international field. He said that the demand for flights from the international sector had been growing recently and this plan would help them address those demands. However, the plan is not yet in motion as it still has to be forwarded to the NAC board for the final approval.

NAC plans to add more destinations on the international field with this plan, as it only has flights offerings to New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Doha, and Dubai.

The total cost of the planes is supposed to be around Rs 70 billion. Kansakar also mentioned that the airline is planning to request the government for funds to increase their paid-up capital to Rs 20 billion which is now Rs 160 million. He also added that the airline could also aid in increasing tourism in Nepal.

The five-year plan also includes expanding the airline’s domestic fleet to twenty, it involves purchasing four more 72-seater ATR planes for trunk routes. At the moment, the domestic flights are being carried out with six China-made and two Canadian Twin Otter planes.

NAC also bought two 274-seater A330-200 wide-body aircraft from Europe-based Airbus company recently. At the moment, the international flights are being carried out with a Boeing 757, two Airbus 320-200 narrow-body and a new wide-body aircraft.