KATHMANDU, Aug 4: The country´s only international airport, the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), is facing problem with no one coming forward to take the old aircraft lying grounded there for years.
Although the TIA published public notice for auctioning off the old aircraft a number of times, there are no takers. So far, TIA has only been able to get rid of only one aircraft in its fleet of nearly a dozen decrepit aircraft.
The airport authorities said about a dozen aircraft of different airlines companies are lying on the airport premises as nobody has offered to buy these junk aircraft despite issuing notices for auctioning off these aircraft.
TIA had issued public auction notice for selling these old aircraft in April. There was no response and it again issued another public auction notice last week.
General Manager of TIA, Ratishchandra Lal Suman said that only the Y 12 aircraft of the Yeti Airlines was sold.
Suman said they are now planning to adopt a new auctioning process to get rid of the old aircraft from the airport.
There are two old aircraft of the Yeti Airlines, five of Cosmic Air, two of Nepal Airways and one aircraft each of Nepal Airlines Corporation and Necon Air lying at the airport.
The grounded aircraft of international and domestic airline companies have been lying at the airport for nearly a decade after the companies closed. Of the private airlines companies whose aircraft are grounded, only Yeti Airlines is operating.
Besides the grounded old aircraft, the airport is littered with many old equipment and machinery including minibuses, hydraulic jacks, boarding ramp, baggage carriers and trolleys abandoned by different companies.
According to the airport authorities, none of the airline companies has paid the parking, landing and navigation fees. These companies together owe over Rs 15 million in arrears to TIA. The parking fee is determined according to the weight and size of the aircraft.
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