KATHMANDU, Dec 26: US firm AAR Corp has submitted the lowest bid of US$ 104.8 million each to supply two Airbus A330-200 aircraft to Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).
According to NAC officials, the aviation support company has also said that it would deliver the first of the two planes by mid-April -- five months ahead of the deadline fixed by the national flag carrier.
“Altogether we received 11 proposals -- from the highest price of $146 million to lowest $104.8 million for each jet,” an NAC official told Repbulica.
NAC has formed an 11-member evaluation committee to study the technical and financial proposals of the bidders.
First accident of ATR-72 aircraft in Nepal
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“The evaluation committee will submit its report to the board,” NAC Managing Director Sugat Ratna Kansakar said. “However, the ‘offer price’ is not the final price. It may go up slightly when final contract negotiations are completed,” he added.
According to Kansakar, contract negotiation could take three weeks.
After the board gives green signal to the lowest bidder, NAC will ask AAR Corp to submit letters of intent (LoI). NAC will then sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) before signing contract negotiations with the supplier.
NAC will get final cost of the aircraft at the time of signing the purchase agreement.
NAC had invited proposals from aircraft manufacturers, airlines, aircraft leasing companies and bankers for two Airbus A330-200 aircraft on September 26.
The flag carrier, which already has two Airbus A320-200 aircraft in its fleet, decided to buy Airbus A330-200 aircraft for long-haul flights as it plans to operate aircraft from single manufacturer.
NAC plans to acquire the first of the two A330-200 aircraft by September 2017, and the second one by March 2018.
Apart from the two A320-200s, it also has two ageing Boeing 757s for international flights.
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