Kathmandu, July 2. The national flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation is preparing to make flights in different destinations by owning the wide body plane for the first time in its 60 years of history.
Established on July 1, 1958 with the 28 seater Douglas DC 3 Dakota Plane, the NAC has recently purchased a wide- body aircraft A 330-200. The Airbus A 330-200 named Annapurna landed at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on June 28. The second wide body will land at TIA after one and a half months.
General Manager of NAC Sugat Ratna Kansakar said that the wide body plane would serve Dubai and Doha in the first phase and Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia in the second phase.
Despite good progress during the 1990s, the NAC preformed very poor in the last two decades due to lack of prompt management and political interference. The 1990s is termed as the golden period in the history of the NAC, as it had two Boeings, three Pilatus Porters, three Avro planes and 10 Twin Otters during the time. During those days, the NAC used serve in the European cities as well including London, Paris and Frankfort.
Likewise, in the recent the market of the national flag carrier has sharply increased with its strong presence and services.
The NAC, which was in the fifth position of the list of air service transporting the highest number of tourists in 2015, reached first position in 2016.
The NAC had provided service to 344,000 peoples towards international flight in 2072/73 BS and 421,000 peoples in 2073/74 BS.
NAC officials said that the reputation of NAC, which was down due to various reasons including sharp competition with budget airlines, has now risen due to best ground handling service and trade promotion in the international destinations.
General Manager Kansakar said that the NAC has now been making income by solving different types of challenges and problems.
He said that the NAC has forwarded works with a plan to make the NAC competitive with other airlines of the world making the organisation fully commercial after introducing the new wide-body aircraft.
According to the NAC, it has been managing 9,000 passengers and 1,400 baggages every day. The NAC had one year ago received ISAGO Certificate due to this service
Addressing the diamond jubilee celebration, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Rabindra Adhikari, stressed the need of developing the organisation as a competitive organisation by learning from past mistakes and weaknesses.
Minister Adhikari said, “Heading towards the easy way of future after learning from past weaknesses is the need and challenge of the hour. The NAC should be competitor with other airlines of the world in days ahead.”
He underscored the need of effective reform in NAC management. The Tourism Minister said, “There will be no lack of aircrafts to NAC. The NAC has to pay its attention in expanding its destinations and trade promotion through effective implementation of its commercial plan.”
Pointing out the need of the NAC capable and success in order to make the government’s plan to bring in two million tourists by 2020 and five million tourists by 2030, he said arrangement of Rs five billion would be made for coming fiscal year for the expansion of air service at remote areas.
Similarly, State Minister Dhan Bahadur Budha and Acting Secretary at the Ministry Suresh Acharya also expressed their views.
