One widebody is stranded in Italy for 2 months, another widebody will also go there on Wednesday

The corporation will lose 60 percent of its income (4 crores per day) due to the disruption of both widebody flights in the run-up to the festival. On top of that, it is time to send the third (narrow body) out of the total 4 big ships for 'C-Check'.

Even though 'C-Check' is a regular and technical process, due to the negligence of the corporation management, the flight is disrupted and both wide bodies are 'grounded' at the same time. Even though it has been two months since the widebody 'Annapurna' arrived in Italy, the corporation leadership has not answered when it will come.

Executive Chairman Yuvraj Adhikari, who reached the Prime Minister's residence in Baluwatar on the evening of July 7 with emergency staff, gave a 'briefing' to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, who will return the ship by mid-July. Another widebody 'Makalu' which was supposed to be taken for 'C-Check' was stopped at the request of the officer and the instructions of the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister's economic and development adviser Yuvraj Khatiwada also participated in the discussion, the executive chairman of the corporation said that the agent company will return the ship to Naples on July 31. On the same basis, the flight time of another widebody plane 'Makalu' was increased by 300 hours.

Prime Minister Oli called Director General of Civil Aviation Authority Pradeep Adhikari from the mobile phone of Principal Private Secretary Rajesh Bajracharya and instructed him to extend the flight time of Widebody Makalu and continue commercial flights. According to the same directive, the authority extended the time of 300 hours of commercial flight to Makalu Widebody in the evening of July 8.

The flight time of the ship to go to 'C-Check' has also reached one month on Friday. There are only a few hours left in the 300 hours added. This widebody based in Kathmandu has been flying only to Narita, Japan, so Sunday flight has been postponed and merged with Tuesday. "Sunday's Narita flight has been canceled to save Widebody's extended flight time," said an official from the corporation's marketing department. We have kept some of them on Tuesday's flight.'

After returning from Narita, this widebody will take passengers to Dubai on Wednesday and it has been confirmed that it will be taken to Italy for 'C-Check'. Although it is certain that the ship will be sent to Italy, the corporation has not yet received the date for the start of 'C-Check'. The Corporation has entered into an agreement with Italy-based Maintenance Agent (MRO) company ATITech for the 'C-Check' of the widebody aircraft. It is not certain when the Annapurna plane will even arrive because the agent company will return it in 30 days.

The time to have a 'C-check' for a narrow body of the corporation is approaching. "After two wide bodies, it is time to withdraw another narrow body from the commercial flight for 'C-Check'," said the engineer of the corporation, "Preparations should be made now, but the corporation management gives up only at the last moment." The tender process for selecting the maintenance agent is in dispute. According to another official of

Corporation, the spare parts sent from countries such as Germany, America and other countries by the company that supplies ship parts are stuck in Italian customs.

Achyut Paudel and Pushpa Bhandari, engineers of the corporation, have been sent to the place where the ship is being repaired a few days ago. They have been asked to work quickly," said the official, "Engineers Devkrishna Sanjel, Sandeep Tuladhar and Bhageshwar Vishwas, who were sent earlier, have been called back because they did not coordinate effectively with the MRO company."

Corporation has four jets, two with a capacity of 158 seats and two with a capacity of 274 seats for international flights. It flies to 11 destinations in 9 countries including India, Qatar, Malaysia, Dubai, Hong Kong, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Japan. The four planes of the finance department of the corporation have an average turnover of Rs 60 million per day when they fly regularly. In this, Widebody's income share is around 40 million.

If the widebody that reached Italy two months before 'C-Check' does not return and another widebody which is currently in flight will also be sent for 'C-Check' this week, the corporation will lose 40 million rupees of business every day in the run-up to the festival. The festival is about to start. Passengers coming to Nepal from international destinations started booking tickets in a hurry. There is confusion in the corporation regarding the need to open ticket bookings during the upcoming festival," said an official of the marketing department. If you don't fly, the loss will increase. It also has a debt burden of 48 billion. This is just the principal amount. After settling the interest of the latest covid, the corporation's liability including interest has exceeded 50 billion.

Kumarmani Thapalia, president of Natta, the umbrella organization of travel and tour operators, said that foreign airlines double the price of one-way tickets as soon as the corporation's ship is not present during the festival. "We met Tourism Minister Badri Pandey a few days ago after getting the information that the corporation's aircraft will be grounded during Dussaintihar. We also complained about the favoritism of foreign airlines in Nepal's labor market," he told Kantipur. "Workers are being openly robbed here. Gulf airlines are selling 25/30,000 one-way tickets for 60/65,000. According to the institutional department of the

corporation, the market share of domestic/foreign airlines outside the corporation has reached 87 percent. Due to the negligence of the management, the market share of the corporation is decreasing every year due to non-regularity of flights. In 2023, the corporation's market share in international flights was limited to 14 percent, while in 2020, the corporation's share was more than 25 percent. This current year's calculation comes in December. This year it seems to decrease further,” said an official of the department.

As the market share of the corporation is shrinking, there is an unnatural pressure on air fares. It has a direct impact on students who go for foreign employment and study. If the flights are not sufficient and regular, on the one hand, the corporation is suffering direct losses, on the other hand, it also makes the air fare unstable. This is affecting workers, students and tourists,' said a market manager of the corporation.

corporation spokesperson Ramesh Paudal said that ship repair work is a specific technical subject and there are some more technical challenges in it. "After the sea-check, we are trying to bring the first widebody ship as soon as possible," he said. Tourism Secretary Ganesh Prasad Pandey said that a few days ago, he called the ministry along with the executive chairman of the corporation and instructed them to return the ship to Nepal as soon as possible. Pandey informed that an explanation was also sought regarding the fact that four employees of the corporation, including the chairman, had gone to Australia.

The corporation took a loan of 9.98 billion from the Employees' Provident Fund in 070 for the purchase of two narrow-body ships. The corporation should pay installments of both ships to the fund four times a year at a rate of around 330 million. But the corporation did not pay the regular installments of narrowbodies for two years citing the corona epidemic. "The installments have been delayed for the last 2 years. Now, we are paying the installments of Nyarobody quarterly," the source said, "Nyarobody's principal amount still remains around 9.5 billion. We are taking out detailed accounts in a few days.'

In 074, the Corporation took a loan of 24 billion at the rate of 12/12 billion from the Employees' Savings Fund and Citizen Investment Fund for the purchase of two widebody aircraft. Widebody's installments are not regular as quarterly installments of 40/40 crores have to be paid to both institutions. According to Jitendra Dhital, Chief Administrator of the Savings Fund, the amount to be paid with the interest of the 22 billion loan taken by the corporation for two narrow body and one wide body has reached around 30 billion.

The executive director of the fund, Parbat Kumar Karki, said that the corporation is not able to pay regular installments even in the Citizen Investment Fund. "The corporation has never fully paid the quarterly installment," he said. According to the corporation, the amount to be paid to the Citizen Investment Fund has exceeded 18 billion including interest. 3 billion of the Chinese ship and other government/operational expenses, etc., will also have to be paid by the corporation.