Although UAE never stopped Nepalis from entering its airspace, the entry was allowed only after a negative PCR test result. This facility has arrived at the airport now.

Air Arabia, a Saudi Arabia airline operator, was flying the Nepalis to UAE from Thursday. However, the Nepal airlines lagged in the game as the TIA wasn’t equipped with the PCR test option.

Additionally, Fly Dubai was flying the other passengers. Although the Nepali airlines were flying to UAE, it was only to bring back passengers to Kathmandu.

As per the requirements, a negative PCR test result has to be presented at the airport. This test result should not be more than 48 hours old, and an additional negative Rapid PCR test had to be presented to board the jet. The second test cannot be more than four hours old.

The airlines are accepting even if a negative PCR test result is presented at the time of boarding. However, the test ought not to be older than four hours. Due to this workaround, Nepalis can now fly to UAE on Nepali air carriers.

Using this workaround, Himalaya Airlines and Air Arabia flew Nepalis to UAE on Saturday. The Himalayan Airlines collected the swab samples of the passengers and flew them to the destination only after receiving the negative results.

Also, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is prepping to fly to UAE on Monday night with passengers on board. The NAC will fly twice a week to UAE starting this week.

The government of Dubai previously listed Nepal as a high-risk COVID-19 country along with many other countries. This move was initiated to curb the spread of the virus. It has now relaxed the rules for entry from Nepal.

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The national flag carrier has grounded the Y12e and MA60 aircraft since July last year as these were allegedly causing losses, reported Kathmandu Post.

In 2012, Nepal Airlines signed an agreement with Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) to acquire six aircraft – two MA60s and four Y12es.

Under this deal, China offered grant and concessional loan of $62.13m (CNY408m) for the six airplanes.

Out of $62.13m, a grant of $27.4m (CNY180m) was given by China for one 56-seater MA60 and one 17-seater Y12e aircraft, while the remaining amount was taken as loan by Nepal to procure one MA60 and three Y12e airplanes.

The carrier plans to initially invite offers from national and international bidders to dry lease the aircraft but will go ahead with the sale if there are no takers.

Kathmandu Post quoted Nepal Airlines managing director Dim Prasad Poudel as saying: “Out of the two options recommended by the Finance Ministry—dry lease or outright sale—Nepal Airlines will try the first one.

“We have constituted a committee to determine the lease rate. The panel will submit a report within a week, and we will show it to the board for its go-ahead.”

As of now, only five of the six aircraft are functional and one requires maintenance after crashed landing on the runway of Nepalgunj Airport on 28 March 2020.

The carrier stated that it incurred financial losses due to various reasons including load penalties, insurance, scarcity of spare parts, expensive parts, etc.

Source: Aerospace Technology

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Earlier on February 1, 2020, the Nepali Embassy in China had asked the Nepali citizens in Hubei Province to fill an evacuation form and send it to the Embassy  before 9:00 am on February 2, 2020.

According to the Nepali Embassy in China, around 180 Nepalis from various cities in Hubei Province have appealed for evacuation from China. They include:

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The post 180 Nepalis Appeal for Evacuation from China appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The NAC is currently studying Bangladesh, Beijing, Colombo, Hanoi, Phnom Penh and Yangon on its list.

Earlier, the corporation had said that they would begin operation of flights to Guangzhou and Tokyo Narita from the end of December. However, the NAC told media that they will begin sending flights to the two destinations only in March 2020.

NAC Executive Chairman Madan Kharel said that the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) will conduct a safety audit of CAN in December.

“We will initiate the process of applying for flight permission to destinations like Shanghai and Beijing after the CAAC submits its report,” said Kharel.

The NAC in currently holding talks to get approval from the Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) for starting non-stop flights to Tokyo Narita.

“We plan to submit all required documents to JCAB by November 2019. The process of appointing GSA for Saudi Arabia is in the final stage,” said Kharel.

NAC has also began flights to Osaka in September 2019, since then it has operated two chartered flights to Tokyo Narita in September and October, respectively.

“We had to immediately operate flights to Osaka though we were making plans for Narita. We hope to get more passengers once we begin direct flights to Narita,” said Kharel.

The NAC projected a total revenue of NPR 17.25 billion for FY 2019-20 and has collected NPR 4.29 billion in the first quarter. This includes income from international flights, domestic flights and ground handling.

The NAC is still recovering from the massive scam that cost the country NPR 4.35 billion.

The post NAC Conducts Study on Flight Operations to Seven New Destinations appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

According to Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ministry’s Nepal Tourism Statistics 2018, NAC stands first among Top 5 airlines brining tourists to Nepal.

Jet Airways, Qatar Airways, Fly Dubai and Air India stood at the second, third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

In the previous year, NAC brought 493,170 passengers to Nepal which is 11.7 percent of Nepal’s total international air service market.

The national air carrier operated flights from and to eight destinations in six countries including three destinations in India.

India made up for the highest tourist arrivals in Nepal with 194,323 tourists.

Unfortunately, the giant airlines carrier is no more functional after it experienced a huge financial crisis.

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According to NAC spokesperson Nawa Raj Koirala, the Corporation will issue a tender notice for auctioning the Boeing flight within this week.

Koirala also said that the Airlines Corporation took the decision to sell the Gandaki after a recommendation from its technical committee.

The national carrier has also decided to sell off Boeing spare parts, as it now owns a complete Airbus fleet.

The Corporation sold its Boeing flights as they were not reaping any profits. Factors such as high maintenance costs compared to the income generated and high fuel consumption forced NAC to take this decision.

The Boeing flights generated revenue close to NPR 1 billion per year, almost the same amount utilized for their maintenance. Additionally, the flights consumed 4 tons of fuel per hour compared to Airbus’ 2.5 hours.

NAC set the minimum sale price of USD 7.8 million.

“An expert committee has been formed to auction the Boeing. The auction notice will be issued on Friday. It’s a long process. We have to give 45 days for potential buyers to submit their bids,” said Madan Kharel, Nepal Airlines Executive Chairman.

Airline staff believes that this flight is their lucky charm, which helped them reach many destinations in Asia and Europe.

A former NAC staffer Raju KC recalls that the Gulf airlines did not have this model at that time. “High officials of Emirates Airline used to go to Frankfurt to look at our aircraft,” said KC.

Two years earlier, the Corporation had sold another of its Boeing aircrafts Karnali to BB Airways.

Karnali and Gandaki aircrafts were purchased in 1987 and 1988, respectively.

The post Nepal Airlines Corporation Bids Fare well to Boeing 757 ‘Gandaki’ appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Since the start of operations from August 2018 to January 2019, the flights were able to generate a revenue of only NPR 2.4 billion. In comparison, the total amount for operating expenditure during the same period was NPR 2.1 billion.

Additionally, NAC paid a total interest of NPR 1.92 billion on the loans it took to purchase the planes. This is coupled with borrowed capital of NPR 24 billion at 10 percent interest from Nepal Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Citizen Investment Trust (CIT).

“We do have assets but we are having trouble in managing cash flow. That is why we are getting into trouble to pay back our debts,” said Navaraj Koirala, NAC Joint Spokesperson while admitting that NAC is currently unable to pay back the loan on its own.

According to the loan agreement, NAC has to pay back the loan in 60 installments to clear its debt with EPF and CIT. Koirala said that NAC has to pay around NPR 804 million per installment. So far, the airlines corporation has been able to pay only the first installment and 100 million of the second installment.

Moreover, the third installment is due for payment by mid-April 2019.

“As we cannot pay back the loan on our own we have asked the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation for financial support. A high-level discussion is going on over this issue but no decision has been taken yet,” Koirala added.

NAC had also approached the government with a white paper requesting for financial support until the national flag carrier earns profits from the wide-body aircraft.

However, NAC is hopeful of adding international destinations to its bucket list.

“We are putting an effort to resume our flights to Japan along with starting flights to new destinations like China, Korea and Saudi Arabia. There will be some respite for NAC if we could start flight operations to Japan in the initial phase,” said Koirala.

At present, the flights have a flying capacity of 16 hours, however, they are being operated for only 9 hours, each. If NAC begins sending flights to Japan, the flying capacity will be increased to 14 hours per day.

This new update comes a few months after the scam surrounding the procurement of the same aircraft was exposed. The deal was termed as one of the biggest corruption scandals in Nepal’s history.

The purchase of the aircraft Airbus A330 200 was not done directly from the manufacturer, rather from a leasing company HiFly X Ireland, for which NAC incurred a loss of NPR 4.33 billion.

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The national flag carrier informed this in a recent update, where it said that it’s currently running out of cash and is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Nepal Airlines’ official report released on November 15, 2018 has shown that the carrier’s monthly cash deficit has reached NPR 317.79 million.

The airlines’ deficit has reached this level since addition of two long-range Airbus A330s to its fleet months back, termed as the largest-ever purchase in the history of Nepali aviation.

“We are facing severe financial stress and have requested the government to bail us out. The reason we have been dragged into financial stress is that we have not been able to operate the newly-acquired A330s to their full capacity,” says Madan Kharel, Executive Chairman, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).

Although the situation is expected to recover after the fleet operation begins, the Corporation requests the government for an immediate ‘bail-out’ for now!

Fast-depleting cash flows is another major problem that the airlines is suffering from, say the officials.

The airlines’ debt-to-equity ratio has reportedly grown three-fold since the last summer, from 14.40 percent to 39.82 percent, which means the company is receiving most of its budget as a borrowing and continuing the same leads to business decline to the level of bankruptcy.

What’s Leading to Bankruptcy?
The national flag carrier was enjoying a monthly revenue surplus of NPR 12.54 million prior to the Airbus jets’ deal.

According to the official data, the maintenance of these two jets for a month period (August 1-September 15, 2018) tripled airlines’ expenses to nearly Rs 756.6 million, adding to its deficit of NPR 491.8 million and giving it a mere NPR 264.8 million in earnings.

The two A330 jets are currently being used for less than seven hours in a day and less than 50 percent of the required flight time usually required to generate a decent profit.

The deal added to the dire state of Nepal Airlines’ finances, which was already facing the intensity of offering massive loans to various institutions, both long and short-term loans, which stand at NPR 41.73 billion and owes more than NPR 3.66 billion in interest annually.

“The corporation’s financial health is really bad. If things continue the way they are, the airlines will begin defaulting on payments and staff salaries,” says an official associated with NAC’s operations.

‘Yet to Utilize Due Potential’
The official continues to say that Nepal Airlines’ case is different from similar ones in other nations like India as “the new planes have not been utilized prudently and commercially”.

NAC has reportedly failed to scope pilots in advance for the new aircraft following the traditional practice of getting planes first and then pilots.

Besides, the Corporation still has nearly three planes waiting at the Tribhuvan International Airport for pilots.

Above all, officials feel that was not appropriate to equip the airlines with the country’s youngest fleet, inducting two Airbus A320 aircraft in 2015 and two additional wide-body A330 in 2018.

“Despite the pilot shortage, the corporation again started homework to procure two more A320neo jets for international route and six Viking Twin Otters for domestic operation,” says a senior captain at the corporation.

According to Kharel, shortage of flight crew is stopping new planes from exhibiting their optimum potential.

“We were also not able to expand our routes to Japan, South Korea and some European countries from where we would have generated good income,” he adds.

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In view of increasing demand during the festive season, the state-owned Nepal Airlines is gearing up plans to offer seamless connectivity to remote locations of the country.

Towards this end, the national flag carrier has already conducted test flights to hilly regions of the country such as Talcha, Simikot, Lukla, Dolpa and Jumla, on September 25-26, 2018.

Further, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is planning another test to Jomsom on September 27, 2018.

“We are just testing the suitability of flying Y12e aircraft to the remote destinations and will soon schedule regular flights based on the results of the test flights,” Madan Kharel, Executive Chairperson of NAC.

Following the last test on September 27, 2018, the team will submit the final performance report to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) seeking approval for running regular flights, adds Kharel.

“The report to be submitted to CAAN will include all relevant details, like maximum number of passengers per flight, baggage weight per person, wind condition and other weather-related matters. Our plan is to resume flights to viable remote domestic destinations before Dashain,” Kharel noted.

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The post Nepal Biggest Festival Season: Govt. Plans Flights to Remote Areas appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

And what’s more? It will be offering a huge take-home in terms of remuneration, luring foreign pilots to its airbases!

The Risk of Running Out
Currently, the shortage of pilots can jeopardize NAC’s plans for flying its new planes.

This is especially an issue of concern as the corporation continues to experience pilots shortage despite the continuous addition of air transport to its airbase.

Kansakar seconds this when he says that even though NAC has 116 pilots, it still falls short of 28 pilots.

“The deficit may rise as we have planned to add at least 10 planes—two A320neo, six Twin Otter and two medium-sized aircraft to serve domestic trunk route sector,” he said during a press conference.

“It will be a temporary hiring until we produce our own captains,” says Sugat Ratna Kansakar, NAC Managing Director .

“We don’t have any option as pilots are not available in the domestic market,” he added speaking about the current situation.

An Attractive Package!
On July 11, 2018, Kansakar revealed that the organization may reward the foreign pilots with a pay package of USD 18,000 and co-pilots with USD 12,000 to ride its ‘wide-body’ addition Airbus A330 jet. This amount is three times more than what the airline corporation is paying its existing pilots.

At present, NAC is recruiting three foreign captains for its A320 jets following which, they will be paid USD 15,000 every month.

Procurement of Additional Flights and Recruitment of Crew
The corporation has already got its first Airbus A330 jet and is expecting the second one’s arrival anytime in the following three weeks. For this, it will start looking for 12 captains and 12 co-pilots.

“All these 24 pilots will be hired from foreign countries,” says Kansakar.

The corporation has expressed that it will need eight captains to fly four ‘Made in China’ Y12e aircraft.

Related Plans
The corporation has also revealed its plans for separating its domestic operations from international ones.

“We have been receiving complaints from all sides that the national flag carrier doesn’t seem interested to fly its domestic aircraft. Hence, we are splitting the operation into two entities that will be managed separately,” says Kansakar.

Among its old flights, the corporation has sold one of its two Boeing 757s and plans to sell its second flight by next year.

It also plans on selling its 40-year Twin Otter. “In the next two years, we will have all new planes in our fleet,” says Kansakar.

NAC Strategic Shift to Draw ‘Big’ From Tourism
With major shift driving profits from tourism, NAC plans to procure two new wide-body-aircrafts and move its focus to high-end tourists from migrant workers which is the current trend.

Managing Director Kansakar explains this when he says, “We are planning to expand our service to various developing and developed countries with an aim to service high-end tourists.”

Amidst the hullabaloo concerning Visit Nepal Year 2020, NAC is also preparing to back the government’s aim of bringing two million nations to the country by 2020.

Revealing this decision in his address to the media, Kansakar said that it is NAC’s duty to support the government’s aim of bringing in more high-end tourists from other countries.

“Currently we are only flying to India, some Middle-East destinations and other comparatively cheaper destinations,” Kansakar says.

Since the European Union has also lifted the ban on Nepal aircraft, Kanaskar told media that NAC will now religiously work on resuming flights to Europe.

“We believe that restarting direct flights to Europe will go a long way in bringing in high-value tourists to Nepal,” he says.

“Currently we are only flying to India, some Middle-East destinations and other comparatively cheaper destinations,” added Kansakar.

In June 2018, the Nepal government signed ‘air pacts’ with Japan to renew its air ties with the country and provide more window for flights operating between both the nations. Currently, it is in talks with Australia.

NAC also has eyes on religious tourism destinations including India, Myanmar, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

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