"The payment has been made on Sunday but as the international banks remain closed on Sunday, Airbus received the payment today. The agreement which was in paper now has been finalized as we have sent the first pre- delivery payment," said Ganesh Bahadur Chand, spokesperson of NAC.
Once the aircrafts arrives, they would be the first addition to NAC´s fleet in 28 years. [break]
As per the catalogue price, the total cost of a single aircraft is around US $75 million (approximately Rs 7.2 billion). NAC has already made an advance payment of US $500,000 to Airbus.
The national flag carrier has signed a loan agreement of Rs 10 billion with Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to finance the purchase. EPF has offered the credit at 12 percent interest and has given NAC 15 years to clear the loan amount.As Airbus receives the first pre-delivery installment, it will now start manufacturing the aircrafts.
Chand said that Airbus has send the payment schedule and NAC will pay the remaining installments as per the schedule. According to the schedule, the second pre-delivery installment has to be made six months after the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed.
As per the agreement, Airbus has expressed its commitment to deliver the first aircraft within February 2015 and another in the next two months time. According to the agreement, NAC has to initially pay 30 percent of the cost of the aircraft and rest on the day the aircraft is delivered.
A320-200 is a single aisle, or narrow body, aircraft with seating capacity of 150 persons. But NAC is planning to extend the seating capacity to 164 once it receives the jetliners.
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