AVIATION
Nepal Airlines Narrow Body Aircraft Missing since months
The aircraft has been missing from service for a month after engine maintenance and its whereabout is not clearly known.
National Flag Carrier Nepal Airlines’ aircraft, the ‘9N-AKX’ (Lumbini) was grounded from November 30th (Mangsir 14), until now, for over 109 days without engine maintenance being possible.
As the objections were raised over grounding the aircraft without engine maintenance, the executive chairman of the corporation, Yuvaraj Adhikari, sent the whole aircraft to Israel. The aircraft was sent to Israel on December 26th, but it hasn’t been brought back to Nepal yet. The aircraft has been missing from service for a month after engine maintenance and its whereabout is not clearly known.
Even though the aircraft hasn’t flown, the corporation has been charged $2,000 daily for using the engine. There are no plans to repair the faulty engine removed from the aircraft.
The issue with the engine of the ‘9N-AKX’ was identified on July 17th. Following the engine issue, the engine was sent to Israel for maintenance on September 30th. The aircraft arrived with a rented engine for maintenance ten days later. Despite 65 days of maintenance, the aircraft’s engine still hasn’t been repaired.
The engine sent for maintenance in Israel since September 30th and the faulty engine that was removed are still undergoing maintenance. The engine undergoing maintenance has been out of service for 246 days. The engine under maintenance since July 17, 2023, has been undergoing maintenance for 166 days but still hasn’t been repaired.
The agreement for engine maintenance states that it would take only 65 days for maintenance until April 12th. However, the engine that was removed on November 30th still hasn’t undergone maintenance.
The corporation is losing a monthly revenue of 300 million Nepalese Rupees due to the aircraft being out of service after engine maintenance. Additionally, despite not flying, the corporation incurs a daily expense of $2,000 for the rented engine.
The management of the corporation hasn’t provided a clear answer on when the engine maintenance will be completed and when the aircraft will return to service. The executive chairman of the corporation had assigned the responsibility of engine maintenance and engine rental to a single company during negotiations.
The consequence of assigning the responsibility to a company unable to perform the task is evident now. The ‘Israel Aerospace Industries’ (IAI) has been selected for engine maintenance and rental. Continuous negligence has been observed from this company regarding engine maintenance.