Grounded pilots to take off

Nepal Airlines co-pilots, who were barred from flying Twin Otters, are back to their duty from tomorrow.
Operation manager Captain Shishir Sharma today held dialogue with the agitating pilots and let them fly from tomorrow, one of the grounded co-pilot said, adding that the management has realised that it has made mistake by not letting them fly.
The management has grounded them alleging of being involved in politics in the office. "However, we have only objected to the appointment of a co-pilot, who has no flying experience of twin otter and is against the corporation's rule," he added.
Managing Director K B Limbu had appointed Man Bahadur Tumbahanfe to the post of captain about three months ago. "Tumbahanfewas with the Yeti Airlines and has been flying Jetstream and he has no experience of flying Twin Otter," the co-pilots accused, protesting the decision.
The managment has suspended the protesting co-pilots -- Sajal Kuinkel, R Banjare, Suresh KC, S Paudel, A K Khadka, D K Gupta, B Kathayat, P Shrestha, A R Shakya and Raman Ghimire -- from flying until further notice from the verbal order by Limbu accusing them of complaining to the anti-corruption agency.
There are only two Twin Otters currently in operation and the pilots get a chance to fly once in a wek as there are 27 pilots for domestic flights. According to the current flight schedule, only five pilots will be enough to handle the domestic operations.
R Banjare -- one of the grounded co-pilots -- told The Himalayan Times that managing director's decision to suspend them from flying was not legitimate. "The action was taken after the pilots were found approaching different institutions like CIAA and ministry -- lobbying against the management's decision to hire another pilot ouster,” Limbu said.
After today's decision to let them fly, the agitating pilots vow to continue to fight within the organisation.
Though the national flag carrier has five Twin Otters, only two are currently in operations in domestic route apart from two age old Boeing 757s that fly on the international route.

NAC gounds one of its Boeings

The national flag-carrier has grounded one of its Boeing 757s reducing international flights by a half at a time when Nepal Tourism Year 2011 is only two months away.
This is the second time since August that Nepal Airlines Corporation has grounded its aircraft.
On January 14, the ambitious NTY 2011 — aiming to attract one million tourists — will kick off. But just when NAC needs to add to its fleet, it has had to ground one of its two aircraft. Something that certainly doesn’t bode well for tourist arrivals.
NAC has been forced to reduce its international flights by half due to a crack in two of the 70 Outlet Guide Vanes in the engine of the 9N-ACB aircraft. The crack was discovered during regular check-up that is conducted after a 500 hours of flight of an aircraft.
“The aircraft has been grounded since Saturday,” said a highly placed NAC source. This has forced NAC to cut down on lucrative destinations.
Normally, NAC makes one flight everyday on the New Delhi route. It also flies thrice a week on the Bangkok and Hong Kong routes, and four times on the Dubai-Doha route, with both aircraft. “Though we will decide how many international flights to reduce tomorrow, we have not flown on the New Delhi route for two days,” the source said, adding, the flights on the Bangkok, Hong Kong and Dubai-Doha routes had already been reduced to half.
“We are in touch with the Boeing company and the engine-maker Rolls Royce to fix the problem,” he added.
“Unlike last time, we will not suspend flights to New Delhi, though we are planning to reduce them to a half,” the source said. Although NAC desperately needs new aircraft, all aircraft purchase deals have been controversial. NAC had decided to buy a wide-bodied and a narrow-bodied aircraft from European manufacturer Airbus. It had planned to purchase a A330-200 — a wide-bodied aircraft with a seat capacity of 279 — and a narrow-bodied A320-200 with seating capacity of 150.
But the government’s anti-corruption watchdog has put the NAC’s long-cherished dream of adding a new aircraft to its fleet of two age-old Boeings on the back burner.