High maintenance cost put a massive financial burden on Nepal Airlines, which decided to sell or lease these planes.
NEW DELHI: Six Chinese aircraft procured by ailing Nepal Airlines between 2014 and 2018 are up for sale as these aircraft, which were brought by the airline to deploy in unserved territories in Nepal, have come to be a burden on the airlines.
The high maintenance cost, higher cost of spare parts that are required in these aircraft, lack of pilots that are trained to fly these aircraft, high insurance premiums being paid for these aircraft by the already ailing airline had put a massive financial burden on Nepal Airlines to further keep these aircraft and this is when they decided to sell or lease these Chinese planes.
The Nepal Airlines have never been able to fly these aircraft for commercial purposes till date, since its procurement. Nepal Airlines have also repeatedly said that these aircraft are a “financial burden” on the airlines and they are looking to quickly sell them off. The airline had put these six aircraft up for lease in September this year through a global tender, but found no taker since then. The airline had thought that it would get a lessee by October this year, but since it has not found anyone till date who is willing to take these aircraft on lease, it has decided to further extend the date for searching for a lessee till 16 November this year.
Nepal Airlines spokesperson told The Sunday Guardian that the airline is looking to sell or lease these aircraft by 2023. Since the procurement of these Chinese aircraft–two of which includes Xian MA60, a turboprop-powered airliner, produced by the Chinese Xi’an Aircraft Industrial Corporation and four of Y12 E, high wing twin engine turboprop utility aircraft produced by the Harbin Aircraft Industry Group in China—they are gathering dust at the Kathmandu airport as Nepal Airlines have been unsuccessful to fly them.
The MA60 aircraft were procured to fly in TRUNK routes, (strategic routes), while Y12E was procured to fly in difficult terrain or STOL routes which has a shorter take-off and landing airstrips. These aircraft have been grounded by the Nepal Airlines in 2020, and some officials of the Nepal Airlines say that it was the failure of the management of the airline for which these aircraft could not take to the skies ever.
However, the Nepal Airlines spokesperson responding to the allegations, told The Sunday Guardian, “It is untrue, the Nepal Airline’s management had put in hard effort to fly the aircraft, but the higher cost of spare parts, high insurance premium, low RTOW (Regulated Take-off Weight), lack of reliable maintenance service, high cost for engineer and pilot training are some of the several factors for which the aircraft could not fly.”
Sources in the Nepal Airlines also shared that these Chinese planes were also not of standard quality as it required more than regular maintenance that is required in other similar aircraft of similar age and also the airline could not find flight instructors for such kind of aircraft that could teach or help train pilots to fly these planes.
The airlines had received one MA60 and Y12E aircraft as grant from China in 2014, after which the Nepal Airlines went ahead and bought one MA60 and three other Y12E between 2017 and 2018 from China under soft loan. These aircraft were brought in by the airlines with an aim to fly them into some of the unserved sectors in the Himalayan territory as they were narrow body small aircraft envisioned to fly in difficult terrain.
But, ever since these aircraft landed in Nepal, they started to incur cost on Nepalese Airlines and it became hard for the airline to find pilots and train them to fly these planes; for three years, Nepal Airlines searched for pilots and trainers but could not find any. Since its failure to make these Chinese planes fly, the airlines put in a request to the Civil Aviation Ministry of Nepal to sell these planes off. As the airline waited for a nod from the Civil Aviation Ministry, Nepal, it decided to ground the airline in 2020 as the airline was unable to meet the rising maintenance cost of the airlines.
The Sunday Guardian sought to know from Nepal Airlines at what cost were these aircraft procured by China and have the airlines tried to contact the Chinese companies to take back these aircraft, to which the Nepal Airlines declined to comment.
However, the Nepal Airlines spokesperson said that the airlines have already paid back all the loans that were due against these aircraft to the two Chinese aircraft manufacturers.