After facing heavy losses due to long term grounding , Nepal Airlines has decided to sell five of its Chinese-made aircraft as nobody wants to lease them.
Except for flying to a few airports in the Tarai plains , these aircraft spent more time on the ground than in the air , and they were becoming a financial burden to the debt-ridden national flag carrier.
Eight years after acquiring a batch of Chinese planes it had hoped to fly on underserved mountain routes, but it didn't work as planned , Nepal Airlines finally decided that planes need to be disposed off , after the direction of the Ministry of Finance of Nepal.
In 2012, the corporation had made a purchase agreement of four Y12E and two MA60 aircraft from China. One of these planes is non-operation due to accident, while the remaining five are sitting idle in the parking lot of Tribhuvan International Airport.
April 2017 - China handed over two 17-seat Y12e aircraft to Nepal Airlines Corporation.
After purchasing the Chinese aircraft, it became a headache for the first batch that entered in 2014. Now, as the losses continue to increase, the situation has arisen that these aircraft have to be sold at a loss price.
The scenario worsened after March 28 2020 , when a Y12e aircraft of Nepal Airlines landed about 60 metres short of the runway at Nepalgunj airport and skidded before halting on the nearby grassland.
Weeks after the incident, the flight captain was suspended for “faulty judgement” during the approach and landing phases , but an investigation on the performance of aircraft was done as well.
After casting doubts over the performance of the 17-seater Chinese aircraft , the Nepal Airlines Corporation board of directors unanimously decided not to fly two types of Chinese aircraft , the "17-seater Y12e" and the "56-seater MA60" , from July 16 anymore.
Besides maintenance issues and lack of spare parts , Nepal Airlines couldn't find pilots to fly the aircraft, and there was no sense in keeping them anymore.
In August 2020 , Nepal Airlines laid off four of the pilots hired to fly its Chinese-made Y12e and MA60 after grounding the aircraft permanently since mid-July as they were a drain on resources.
Though the planes are out of service due to high-cost operationalization and being unfit to fly , the Ministry of Finance started feeling the pinch of paying back the interest on the loans for the planes.
Hence the lease offer is here , and the deadline for the bids set by Nepal Airlines is October 31st. Some top Nepal Airlines officials say they do not expect to see potential lessees.
It is said that the Ministry of Finance has instructed the corporation to prepare to sell the aircraft to anyone who wants it after not even leasing it from this call.
