National flag carrier Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is making first pre-delivery installment payment to Airbus by Thursday, as part of the deal to purchase two aircraft from the European aircraft manufacturer. The development comes five days after state-owned NAC signed aircraft purchase agreement with Airbus.
“We need to make a payment of US$14.7 as per the purchase agreement signed with Airbus,” NAC Managing Director Madan Kharel said. “Nepal Rastra Bank has agreed to provide sufficient foreign currency to make the payment.”
As per the catalogue price, each aircraft will cost NAC around $75 million (approximately Rs 7.2 billion). NAC has already made an advance payment of $500,000 to Airbus, while it has signed a loan agreement of Rs 10 billion with the Employees Provident Fund (EPF) to finance its purchase.
NAC, which had signed a preliminary purchase agreement with Airbus in April, has decided to purchase two A320-200 aircraft. A320-200 is a single aisle, or narrow body, aircraft with seating capacity of 150 persons. But NAC is planning to extend the seating capacity to 164 once it receives the aircraft.
Airbus has expressed commitment to deliver the first aircraft within February 2015 and another in the next two months time. As per the agreement, the airline company will have to initially pay 30 percent of the cost of the aircraft and make the remaining payment on the day the delivery is made.
Addressing NAC´s 55th anniversary on Monday, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ram Kumar Shrestha had said that NAC was receiving last opportunity to restore its glory.
He also said that his team had faced great difficulty in convincing the government and the EPF to lend Rs 10 billion to cash-strapped NAC.
Minister Shrestha also suggested that NAC initiate process to purchase additional two wide-body aircraft to operate international flights.
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