Nepal Airlines (RA, Kathmandu) is to be restructured before being either privatized or twinned with an international strategic partner. Nepal's Ekantipur newsiwre says a government think-tank has already put forward a proposal to the airline's board and includes three possible options: the first is a three-party divestment involving government, a strategic partner and an initial public offering; the second is a two-party share divestment that involves the government and a strategic partner; and the third is an outright sale of the airline.
“Obviously, we have a number of plans. The first thing is to put the new planes in a position to compete with private airlines and serve people living in remote areas,” said Ram Hari Sharma, a spokesman for NAC.
The airline's board is expected to arrive at a decision in the next 30 days.
A fully government-backed airline, Nepal Airlines has incurred annual losses amounting to NPR170million (USD1.71million). It has also suffered from poor public-image given incidents of corruption and its high frequency of cancellations and delays.
A bid to offload a 49% stake in the airline in 2004 failed to garner adequate support while a 2007 attempt to find a strategic partner to take over the airline's management, also collapsed.
Earlier this month, the airline took delivery of its first MA-60 turboprop aircraft aimed at allowing it to resume services to the more remote regions of the Himalayan kingdom. At present, the airline currently operates two B757-200s on flights to Bangkok Suvarnabhumi, Doha Hamad International, Hong Kong International and Kuala Lumpur International as well as an ageing DHC-6 on domestic flights.
