Ariana Afghan Airlines (FG, Kabul) has issued a Request For Proposals (RFP) for the wet-lease of two 50-seater turboprops for delivery in January 2020.
According to tender documents seen by ch-aviation, the contract will run for six months and see the aircraft - specified as either MA-60s, Dash 8-300s, or ATR42-500s - based out of Kabul. Once delivered, Ariana will deploy them on domestic Afghan flights linking Herat, Mazar i Sharif, Bamyan, Chagcharan, Faizabad, AF, Tirinkot, Zaranj, Farah, Maimana, Kunduz, Khost, Shorebak/Camp Bastion, Camp Dwyer, and Lashkargāh Bost. The aircraft are described as having a "standard economy configuration".
In return, Ariana is offering a Minimum Monthly Guaranteed Hours of 480 flight hours.
The deadline for the submission of bids is 0900L (0430Z) on Saturday, December 28, 2019.
As previously reported by ch-aviation, Ariana is in the process of relaunching its Bakhtar Afghan Airlines (Kabul) brand as a subsidiary of the state-owned carrier. Given the RFP, the resurgent Bakhtar Afghan Airlines will presumably operate as a virtual carrier brand, at least initially.
The ch-aviation capacities module shows the Afghan domestic market is currently dominated by Kam Air (RQ, Kabul) which offers extensive connectivity using its pair of ATR42-500s.
