Nepal Airlines Corporation paid 9 billion debt
A problem for the corporation when the sources of income are low
Kathmandu. Nepal Airlines Corporation has earned about 30 billion rupees by flying the Airbus A330-200 widebody aircraft that was imported 6 years ago. According to the data provided by the corporation to Clickmandu, the corporation has earned more than 30.35 billion rupees by flying two widebodies with a long-distance flight capacity of 274 seats. It appears to have earned. From such income, the corporation has so far paid 9 billion 3 million rupees in principal and interest of the loan. The loan taken by the corporation for buying the wide body ship is still 35 billion rupees.
The Airline Corporation introduced the first Widebee aircraft on 14 June 2075 and the second on 10 July. The income earned by it in the 6 years since it started flying is less than the debt obligations it carries. The corporation has paid 9.3 billion rupees to both the lenders for the principal and interest of such ship, which was bought by taking a loan of 24 billion rupees from the employee savings fund and the citizen investment fund.
According to a data provided by the corporation, out of the 9 billion rupees that the corporation has paid so far, it is only 5.33 billion rupees in the last 3 years. This amount is for both narrow body and wide body.
The corporation has to pay another 17 billion rupees from the 12 billion loan taken from the Citizens’ Investment Fund, and the same amount is yet to be paid to the employee savings fund for the purchase of a widebody ship. The loan taken by the corporation for buying another 2 narrow body ships is still about 9 billion 71 crore rupees to the employee savings fund. Only the loan of 26 billion rupees for the purchase of 2 narrow-body and 1 wide-body ships to the Employees’ Savings Fund remains to be paid. For one wide body, the debt to be paid to that body is 17 billion due to borrowing from the Citizen Investment Fund.
According to the data provided by Nepal Airlines Corporation, the average passenger income of widebody aircraft is Rs. 26 thousand. The corporation has flown 270 thousand 106 passengers from July to Phagnu in the current financial year only by widebody ships. Based on the average income collected from these passengers, the corporation has earned Rs. 7 billion. According to the raw data for 8 months of the current financial year, there are 270,000 passengers flying on the wide body of the corporation. Based on this data, the average passenger income of widebody is seen above 26 thousand rupees.
However, according to the data provided by the corporation for the last 5 years, the average income of narrow body is higher than that of wide body. In the last 5 years, the average passenger income of narrowbody is 22 thousand rupees, while that of wide body is only 20 thousand rupees.
5 billion 500 million in the last fiscal year 2079/80, 4 billion 38 million in 2078/79, 3 billion 44 million in 2077/78, 5 billion 33 million in 2076/77 and 5 billion 33 million in 2075/76. 4 billion 65 million rupees, according to the data. From such income, the average per-passenger income of the widebody of the corporation will be from 15 thousand to 29 thousand rupees in the last 5 years. According to the data obtained by the Corporation on the basis of the passengers flown in Widebody and the annual income, the average passenger income of the last fiscal year 2079/80 is only Rs 21 thousand.
The corporation’s widebody has started earning 7 billion rupees by carrying more than 2.5 lakh passengers annually, but it is running at a loss due to the fact that long-haul ships fly to short destinations and the operating expenses are high. A study coordinated by Dipendra Bahadur Chhetri has pointed out that until the company’s widebody aircraft flies at full capacity to long-distance destinations and it will not be profitable for another 5 years.
According to the report, even though the corporation’s widebody ships earn 5.7 billion rupees annually, it is still in loss. In the current fiscal year 2080/81, even though it had earned 10 billion rupees, its operating expenses were high, but this response has led to a loss of 3 billion rupees. Pratiwaden has pointed out that the corporation will not be able to make a profit unless it goes to long-distance destinations including Australia and Korea, which are planned to increase seat capacity by making maximum use of the corporation’s wide body.
According to the Airline Corporation, due to low sources of income, it has not been able to earn profit as expected. Ramesh Paudel, the spokesperson of the airline corporation said that even though the airline company has enough manpower and does not have the means (ships) to mobilize that manpower, even though the corporation is making an operating profit of 2.5 billion rupees annually, it is facing a loss when paying installments.
He said, ‘Due to the high interest rate on the loan taken by the corporation when it bought the ship, it has to carry a heavy debt that it cannot pay. Due to the high interest rate of the loan, if all the installments can be paid as much as the profit earned annually, there is no more ship to increase the number of passengers served.
Paudel said, ‘There is a situation where these manpower who can go to new destinations, serve more passengers and earn enough profit can fly 5 more ships. Since the ship company has less ships, even if it is run with minimum manpower, the current expenses will continue.
In order to make the corporation profitable, more ships should be added, the government should reduce the debt limit and provide enough resources to increase the capacity of the corporation. Even now, the corporation has not been able to fly to long-distance destinations. If there is a situation where the wide body is focused on long distances including Korea, Australia, Japan, it will only cover the operating expenses.. Poudel also argued that the corporation has no choice but to add more ships to make a profit and to pay off the debt.
It has been found that the corporation is running because of the profits earned by the 2 narrow bodies of the corporation. As the narrow body ships brought in by the corporation in 2071 have been making profits every year, it has become easy for the corporation to sustain them. The study report about the corporation has also narrowly done the work of taking one billion rupees in profit annually.
The data shows that the income is better than the expenses incurred on the two narrow-body ships, so it has been profitable annually. Corporation’s Nyrodi has earned 10.93 billion rupees by serving 360,000 passengers in 2079/80. It is also seen that the corporation has made a profit of more than one billion rupees from such income. The narrow body of the corporation with a capacity of 158 seats had a profit of 87 million rupees in 2078/79. That year, the two narrow-body ships served 239,000 passengers and earned an income of 6.51 billion rupees. These two ships of the Corporation earned 2.52 billion rupees while serving 122,000 passengers in the financial year 2077/78. In 2076/77, the revenue was 3.80 billion rupees from serving 2.36 thousand passengers. It is mentioned in the data provided by Nigamal that the income earned by these two narrow roads of Nigamal in 2075/76 by serving 3 lakh 43 thousand passengers is 5.85 billion rupees. Besides, the ground handling at Tribhuvan Airport is also a work that helps the corporation to sustain itself. By providing this service, the corporation has been able to make a profit of about one billion rupees annually. The corporation earned 987 million rupees from ground handling in the last year 2079/80 only, while it earned 987 million rupees. . This service has also become a means of making profits for the corporation.
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