Then there were the non-administrative positions of air hostess at the government-owned company. It was a career opportunity which many young girls secretly wove dreams around.
NAC, in fact, was the nation´s pride at the time. It had one of the smartest fleets, comprising 21 aircraft including eight Twin Otters, two Boeing 727s and two 757s. It was also one of the biggest foreign currency earners.
Two decades down the line, the company no longer has that appeal and reputation. Corruption and unnecessary government interference have left such a dent, it will be very difficult to resurrect NAC to its earlier glory.
Problems started surfacing at NAC when it experienced a shortage of aircraft and a cash crunch in 1997. It was then mired in two controversies: the ´Chase Air scam´ in which NAC lost around US$400,000 and the ´Lauda Air scam´ in which it leased an aircraft paying $1,150 excess per hour of flight.
Since then the company has become a burden for the government. It is currently trudging along with three Twin Otters and the two aging Boeing 757s, not knowing when these planes also will cease to operate.
Lately, the government has revived its interest in giving the troubled company a new lease on life and initiated the process for purchasing two new aircraft. But the process has once again slowed down following the induction of a new civil aviation minister and because of the presence of "old members" on NAC´s board of directors.
It is known that any decision taken by NAC management has to be approved by the board. "And since board members are political appointees, the new minister wants to bring in his own people," a reliable source at NAC told myrepublica.com. It looks like the process of purchasing new airplanes will not move ahead unless the existing board resigns or is removed and replaced by a new one.
The problems facing NAC will not be solved just by adding two new airplanes to its fleet, KB Limbu, managing director of the airline, said. "The entire management needs to be reformed and it should be given more autonomy."
He was indicating the lengthy decision-making process at the company. According to Limbu, the management has to get board approval even for the smallest decisions, which is "time consuming." In an era when we are facing tough competition from private sector airlines - that take their decisions overnight - "we cannot function properly like this," he said, calling the NAC board "an inefficient parallel management."
He added: "The best way to move ahead is to give more corporate autonomy to NAC, while making it accountable for every decision it takes."
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