Domestic, international operations of NAC to be split

Kathmandu, June 29

Due to the continuous cumulative losses being faced by the national flag carrier and weak management, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will soon separate its domestic and international flight operations.

The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA) has planned to separate the management of domestic and international flights into two divisions under the umbrella of NAC.

“We have decided to divide the management portfolios of domestic and international operations of NAC to streamline the overall operations of the national flag carrier,” said Tourism Minister Rabindra Adhikari, adding that the process will be concluded within the next six to eight months.

“It’s time now to segregate the responsibilities,” the minister stated. “We feel that having two separate divisions will enhance the overall management of NAC and also increase competitiveness in the domestic and international market segments.”

MoCTCA initially plans to have the international flight segment led by the general manager and domestic operations by deputy general manager of the corporation.

“We have been facing many problems regarding the management of NAC and in handling its flights effectively,” said Suresh Acharya, joint secretary and head of the Aviation Industry Management Division of MoCTCA. “We also plan to separate the ground handling operations.”

Acharya further informed that the proposal to separate NAC into two divisions had been forwarded to the corporation’s board around two months back. The board has already asked the NAC management to separate all the duties, liabilities and income-expenses balance-sheets as per the individual segments.

The NAC management has also said that they will soon start the process of separating the domestic and international flight wings.

“We had done some planning on separating national and international divisions previously too,” said Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NAC. “Now that MoCTCA has taken up the issue seriously the process will be completed soon.”

To further expand its service, NAC took delivery of a 274-seater Airbus 330-200 series wide-body aircraft on Thursday and another aircraft of the same make is scheduled to arrive next month.

The NAC board has decided to purchase two more Airbus 320-200 series narrow-body aircraft and six Twin Otter aircraft. The narrow-body Airbus aircraft will likely to acquired by the end of 2019.

At present, NAC has one Airbus 330-200 series aircraft, two Airbus 320-200 series aircraft and one Boeing 757 aircraft for international flights. Likewise, for domestic flights, NAC has four China-made Y12e and two MA 60 aircraft and three Twin Otter aircraft in its fleet.

NAC’s paid-up capital stands at only Rs 160 million at present. Though NAC was able to book a profit of Rs 43.3 million in fiscal 2016-17, the enterprise’s cumulative loss stands at Rs 1.82 billion.