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Kathmandu Saturday February 03, 2001 Magh 21, 2057.
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Lauda jet ‘earns’ Rs
87.5m loss in one month
By Damakant Jayshi
KATHMANDU, Feb 2 – The B-767 Lauda Air
jet is fast turning out to be a white elephant for the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation
(RNAC) with its wayward service.
According to the documents obtained by The
Kathmandu Post, the jetliner, which was earlier construed by the RNAC management as
"necessary," to meet the passenger demands, has incurred an operational loss of
whopping US$ 923,562 (Rs 68.6 million) during December alone. Add to this the loss of US$
255,682 (Rs 18.99 million) that RNAC has to pay for the under utilization of the jet
during the same period and the loss figure would exceed Rs 87.59 million.
Out of the guaranteed minimum 300 flight hours per
month, the jetliner could not utilize 74.10 flight hours. RNAC has to pay to the Lauda Air
at least US$ 1,005,000 per month at the rate of 3,350 USD per flight hour whether or not
the plane flies the stipulated hours.
The documents show that the wide-bodied jetliner is
making losses in all sectors - Delhi, Osaka, London, Bangkok and Singapore - that it
currently flies.
While trying to justify the controversial jet deal,
former Executive Chairman Hari Bhakta Shrestha had told the reporter to see the deal from
the business point of view. " The deal is a profitable venture...once the plane
starts to operate, you will see yourself how profitable it will be"
The ‘costly’ jetliner has already cost
the job of the then executive chairman of RNAC and the civil aviation minister and has
dragged the Prime Minister himself out the firing line. The wide-body jet is hanging
around the government’s neck like an albatross.
These are not the only losses. RNAC has curtailed
the flight hours of its two 757 jets and the another leased-jet from China South West
Airlines (CSWA), which are underutilized to make way for the Lauda jet.
The RNAC winter flight schedule (from Dec 1 last
year to March 24, 2001) shows that the management has arranged 326 hours for the Lauda
jet, 294 for the CSWA jet and 250 and 212 hours for the two planes owned by RNAC.
Moreover, insiders say the crewmembers of the Lauda
jet often do not cooperate with the RNAC management further compounding the case.
Today’s incident in itself was a classic
example. The RA flight 205-6 (Kathmandu-Delhi-Kathmandu) could not take-off this morning
as per schedule and had to be grounded due to Lauda jet.
The Lauda jet was to fly to London today, but the
crew informed the management that it would not be able to do so due to pending maintenance
check. The operations department diverted its RA jet initially scheduled for KTM-DEL-KTM
for London and shifted its passengers to Indian Airlines.
However, at the eleventh hour, the Lauda crew said
that they want to fly to London as per the original schedule. The management accommodated
"Lauda’s wish" and it flew to London at 1 p.m, nearly four hours behind the
schedule. RA went to rest as its passengers were already adjusted to IA flight.
Corporation officials, requesting anonymity, said,
"this sort of mess is a regular happening these days." RNAC should have prepared
separate route maps for the Lauda and its own jets, but they messed up things to
accommodate the "white elephant" giving rise to ingrained chaos, they said.
"It seems it is not the Lauda Air jet that has
been leased, but the other way round," said an official sarcastically. When asked why
Lauda Air was not following the schedule prepared by RNAC, he said that either Lauda Air
was not interested anymore in its Nepal operations or it didn’t care about the RNAC
management that "is proving to be too weak".
Rajesh Raj Dali, the newly appointed Executive
Chairman at RNAC told The Kathmandu Post that he was also trying to analyze the flight
schedule, especially with reference to the erratic Lauda jet’s non-compliance.
"I will try to fix the problem," he said.
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