DIFFERENT MANUALS OF CHINESE PLANES

KEDAR DAHAL

KATHMANDU, July 6

Chinese company, AVIC International Holding Corporation, has been found to have sent planes different from that mentioned in the manual. The manuals for both MA-60 and Y-12E, provided by China on grant, sent after the planes were sent have been found to be different from those sent before the planes were brought.

There are changes even in basic features in the manuals provided to technicians of the Nepal Airlines Corporation before signing of agreement between Nepal and China governments, and those provided after the planes arrived. The then deputy general manager of NAC Ganesh Thakur had gone to China leading the technical team before the agreement was signed. The company had given manuals during the visit that are different from those that were given once the planes arrived.

There is variance of dozens of features in the manuals. “We were apparently given two separate manuals. The problem seems to have started from there,” General Manager (GM) of NAC Sugat Ratna Kansakar said. “The Chinese team that has arrived now also expressed surprise when informed about that. The NAC has been duped into getting the Chinese planes,” he claimed.

The company had said that that the MA-60 will be 56-seater at first but the manual sent after the plane arrived mentions only 46 seats. Similarly, capacity of Y-12E, brought to operate flights to remote destinations, is also mentioned only 13 in the manual sent after the plane arrived even though the previous manual mentioned 18 seats. The Y-12E has not been able to operate flights to remote areas as the Chinese company has yet to hand over the performance document to the NAC.

MA-60 was brought on April 27, 2014 while 18-seater Y-12 arrived on November 3, 2014. The former had started flights from June 25, 2014 and the latter from December 18 that year. He revealed that the NAC has asked the Chinese team about how to operate the planes as there is loss in each flight. The previous manual had mentioned the weight of the plane and that the Y-12 can be operated in airports at Manang, Mustang, Lukla and other areas with high atmospheric pressure. But the manual sent later does not mention that. The NAC is talking with the Chinese team about flight weight of the planes, high insurance premium, training of pilots and engineers, simulator fee and other issues.

Nothing can be done about reducing insurance fee: Chinese team

The Chinese team has said nothing can be done when the NAC urged to reduce insurance premium stating it to be high. The NAC spends almost half its income from Chinese planes on insurance. “Insurance premium is the problem for NAC. But the Chinese side does not want to talk about that,” Kansakar stated. The NAC has been paying just 0.55 percent in premium for its new Airbus A320 planes, and 1.5 percent for Boeing 757s but has been paying 4.47 percent for its MA-60 brought from China. It comes out to Rs 246,000 a day. The NAC pays over Rs 91 million for insurance of MA-60 every year and around Rs 30 million for Y-12. The amount is almost nine times more than that for big planes of Airbus or Boeing.

China has provided Rs 6.67 billion to the NAC through Export Import (Exim) Bank of China in grant and soft loan to procure the six planes. Rs 2.94 billion out of that is grant for an MA-60 and Y-12 each, and the rest soft loan for the remaining four planes. The four planes were already to arrive as per the agreement but the NAC has been taking a stance that they will not be brought until the current problems about insurance were settled.