Nepal Airlines grounds entire domestic fleet

The national flag carrier, Nepal Airlines Corporation, owns three Twin Otter aircraft for domestic flights, all of which have been grounded for nearly 12 years.  

One of the aircraft, DHC 6-300 with the call sign ABX, has been sitting idle under the sun at Tribhuvan International Airport since 2012. After its grounding, the remaining two aircraft continued operating on 19 routes until one, Nine-ABT, was grounded on June 6 due to an engine issue. For about six months, only one Twin Otter, Nine-ABU, remained operational for domestic flights. However, it too was grounded on Dec 23 when its engine’s flight hours expired, leading to the complete suspension of the airline’s domestic operations. Despite this, Nepal Airlines Corporation’s leadership appears indifferent to maintaining the grounded aircraft.  

Nepal Airlines is the only carrier serving the country’s remote hilly and mountainous districts. With the grounding of its fleet, all domestic operations have ceased, leaving four contract pilots, 19 engineers, and more than 50 technical staff without work. Employees report that the corporation is losing millions of rupees monthly due to administrative expenses, including staff salaries, despite the suspension of flights.

The Twin Otter Nine-ABU’s engine flight hours expired on Dec 23, and the aircraft had been flying under a flight-hour-saving strategy since May 2024. According to a corporation employee, the right-hand engine’s maximum flight hours had already been reached.  

Meanwhile, the engine of Nine-ABT, grounded on June 6, seized during maintenance. Without a spare engine available, the corporation was unable to repair it. Parts from the Nine-ABT, including its engine, were subsequently transferred to the recently grounded Nine-ABU, according to a source within the corporation.  

The flight hours for the Nine-ABU’s engine were originally capped at 3,600 but were reportedly extended to 4,000, according to insiders. However, the corporation’s technical spokesperson, Engineer Manoj Kumar Shah, refuted these claims. “The corporation is compromising safety by exceeding the approved flight hours. The engine’s capacity is 3,600 hours,” Shah said. He added that the decision to fly the aircraft was made to serve civil aviation needs rather than for commercial profit.  

The corporation had called for bids to repair the engine on Aug 9. Israeli company Bet Semes and Nepali company Mater Trading applied. Bet Semes had prior experience with Nepal Airlines’ engine repairs, while Mater Trading, registered in 2018 for goods transportation, had no relevant background.  

A second tender was issued on Oct 3, to which only Bet Semes responded. Despite Bet Semes’ global reputation for repairing PT6-27 engines, the corporation delayed finalizing an agreement for over two months. A formal agreement with Bet Semes was finally signed on Dec 21. As per the contract, the company must provide a repaired engine within 45 to 90 days, with delivery expected by the end of Jan 2025.  

On the international front, Nepal Airlines’ narrow-body aircraft Nine-N-AKW, which requires a mandatory C-check, has been flying under a flight-hour-saving strategy since October due to delays in selecting a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) provider. The aircraft currently operates only two to three sectors per week instead of the usual 27–28 flights, averaging just two hours of flight time daily.  

Currently, the corporation operates two wide-body and two narrow-body aircraft on nine international routes. However, with the Nine-N-AKW nearing its grounding due to delayed maintenance, the airline’s operational capacity is shrinking further. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation has taken no visible action to address these issues.