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| Kathmandu, Friday June 06, 2003 Jestha 23, 2060. |
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RNAC to hire Boeing 737 from
Pegasus
Post Report
KATHMANDU, June 5 : The national flag carrier
Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) has signed a deal with Turkey-based Pegasus
Airlines to hire a 172 seater Boeing 737 aircraft on a short term lease for a month.
The new aircraft would fly on the schedules of
RNAC’s Boeing 757 that is currently in Brunei for C-check. Of the two Boeing 757s
that are used for the international flights of the corporation, only one is currently in
operation
The said aircraft would land Kathmandu on
Friday, informed a source of the RNAC. "The suspended flights – one to Delhi and
one to Hong Kong – in the absence of one aircraft would resume from Saturday,"
the source said.
According to the source, the new aircraft would
probably be used for some 150 hours. He stated that the lease charge for the aircraft is
relatively lower, and much lower than earlier negotiations. In the previous hiring the
RNAC used to pay up to US$ 3,300 per hour of flight.
In the meantime, the source informed The
Kathmandu Post that the deal was finalised at US$ 2,700 per hour for the ACMI (Aircraft,
Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) charge. The corporation received four different bids for
leasing the aircraft, with the highest lease amount being US$ 3,700 per flight hour.
Sources said that the Corporation could not sign
a deal in time, immediately after the aircraft went for maintenance in May 31st because of
failed negotiations with another company. The corporation could not finalise a deal with
the Dutch aircraft because of financial differences.
Unlike the previous practice of acquiring
aircraft through a direct deal, the RNAC had called a tender for the delivery of an
aircraft for the period of 7 weeks some one and half months back. The national flag
carrier had initiated such process nearly two months before dispatching its Boeing 757 to
correct the lessons learnt during its last routine C-check.
At that time, the RNAC had to suspend a number
of flights after it failed to manage an aircraft for replacement of one of its Boeings
sent for the check.
The C-check of Boeing engine is carried out for
all sorts of repairing and necessary overhauling of several parts, other than the engine.
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