This hint was given through a report submitted by a 14-member committee formed to evaluate the bid documents submitted by airline manufacturers, namely Boeing and Airbus. A sub-committee headed by chairman of NAC, B K Man Singh, will now carefully examine all the options mentioned in the report and give a decision on the aircraft NAC should buy. [break]
A reliable source at NAC told myrepublica.com that Airbus had offered to sell two aircraft - A320-200 and A330-200. A320-200 is a narrow-body aircraft with a seating capacity of 150 persons, while A330-200 is a wide-body aircraft and can seat around 280 people. The costs of these airplanes are approximately US$91 million and $41 million, respectively.
Boeing, on the other hand, had offered to sell Boeing 737-800 and Boeings 767 and 777. The American aircraft manufacturer had quoted a price of approximately $45 million for Boeing 737-800, a narrow-body aircraft. However, it did not quote prices of two wide-body aircraft - Boeings 767 and 777.
"Due to absence of financial bids, we had to virtually disqualify Boeing from participating in the race to sell wide-body aircraft," an NAC source said. "On top of that, both the wide-body aircraft of Boeing are expensive to maintain." According to him, operating costs of Boeings 767 and 777 are around 40 percent higher than that of Airbus 330-200. "That´s why the hint for purchase of aircraft manufactured by Airbus."
Another reason why the committee had hinted NAC to purchase Airbus aircraft is to maintain homogeneity in the fleet of NAC.
"We can obviously go for narrow-body aircraft of Boeing and a wide-body aircraft of Airbus, but we need different sets of human resources to fly and maintain those two aircraft. This will only add financial burden on the company," the source said. According to him, if NAC purchases A320-200 and A330-200, same sets of pilot and technicians can fly and maintain the aircraft.
This, however, does not mean NAC currently has Airbus aircraft in its fleet. On the contrary, it only has two Boeing 757s. But these models of plane are becoming obsolete and other models of Boeing are completely different from the ones NAC has. "So even if we get new Boeings we need to train people how to fly and maintain the aircraft. That is another reason the recommendation to purchase Airbus aircraft was given," the source said.
There was another option as well: to purchase both narrow-body aircraft of Boeing. "But this will not allow NAC to make long-haul flights to Japan and Europe. If Nepal wants to bring in passengers from these two key tourist destinations, NAC will need to have at least one wide-body aircraft. And the only option now is A330-200," the source said.
All these recommendations will now be reviewed by a sub-committee formed under the chairman of NAC, which will then have to be approved by the NAC board of directors. If the board gives a go-ahead, NAC will be able to add narrow-body aircraft within September or October this year and a wide-body aircraft within October 2010. If NAC is able to purchase the two aircraft, the government-owned airline company will see new planes added to its fleet after a gap of 21 years.
But before purchasing the aircraft, NAC needs a guarantee letter from the government to secure necessary funds to purchase the airplanes. Employees Provident Fund has already agreed to give a loan of Rs 10 billion to NAC at an interest rate of around 10 percent per annum. NAC is expecting to pay back this amount within 10-12 years.
NAC had formally initiated the process to purchase the aircraft in April after floating a 45-day tender notice inviting only aircraft manufacturers to participate in the bidding. Responding positively to NAC´s call, five companies, including Boeing and Airbus, had submitted bid documents. However, three companies -- Ilyoshin Finance Corporation of Russia, Commercial Aircraft Sales, Leasing and Consulting Company of the US and Kathmandu-based Aero Express Aviation -- were later disqualified after NAC found out that these firms were not aircraft manufacturers. This had left only two companies -- Boeing and Airbus -- in the bidding competition. NAC currently has a fleet of six aircraft. Of this, four are Twin Otters which operate on domestic sectors. The remaining two Boeing aircraft fly international routes. It purchased its last Boeing in 1988.
Due to lack of aircraft, NAC, on one hand, has not been able to cover many destinations worldwide, while on the other has been postponing or canceling many flights. This has also had negative impact on the tourism sector of the country.
rupak@myrepublica.com
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