Nepal Airlines to add two new aircraft to its fleet

Kathmandu, Dec 4 (UNI) The Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) will add two aircraft to its existing fleet to make the airlines effective, media reports said here today.

Purchasing a wide-bodied aircraft and another narrow-bodied aircraft will definitely translate into reality soon, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Pradip Gyawali said.

''We will make the purchasing process of two aircraft very transparent and we will weed out possibilities of corruption in the deals,'' chairman of the Nepal Airlines Madhav Ghimire said.

''There can't be any alternative to the NAC than restructuring it.'' The World Bank has shown keen interest to aid NAC in its reform, The Himalayan Times quoted Mr Ghimire as saying.

Mr Ghimire acknowledged that the use of Boeings for overseas trips during the royal regime was damaging to the corporation's regular business as it was forced to cancel its scheduled flights, it said.

''The government has already paid Rs 4.08 crore for the royal trips abroad but is yet to pay about Rs 4 crore more, Gautam Das Shrestha, managing director of NAC was quoted as saying.

There are two Boeing 757s and four operational Twin Otters and the staff per aircraft is 251.

The name of the Nepal's airlines was changed from Royal Nepal to Nepal Airlines after the cut down of the power of the king by the parliament.

UNI XC DKS KN1430