KATHMANDU, Nov 16 - Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is suspending all its international flights for two weeks in the later half of December, as its sole Boeing 757 operational at present is due for an overhauling in Brunei from the18th.
"We have stopped selling tickets for all international flights from December 18 to 31," said Nageswor Raya, spokesperson of the limping national flag carrier.
Talking to the Post, Raya said that the corporation was forced to suspend all international flights, as its only other Boeing 757, which is currently undergoing a C-check in Brunei, is devoid of engines, and NAC would need 12 days to fix that.
According to NAC officials, the corporation will need to extract one of the two engines on the operational Boeing and install it on the Boeing in Brunei and fly that back to Nepal for resumed flights.
They said that NAC would resume international operations with the returning Boeing from January 1, 2008, while the other one undergoes its C-check in Brunei over one and a half months.
Officials further said that even without the C-checks, the corporation would have been forced to suspend flights in order to bring back the Boeing from Brunei.
The corporation presently has only three Boeing engines and cannot operate both Boeings simultaneously. Although it had five Boeing engines, one of them broke down a year ago and another some five months ago.
While the corporation management has been lingering over the overhaul of the two Boeing engines, a recent decision of the NAC chief to have the Chinese company Ameco overhaul the two engines that broke down has caused controversy.
Moreover, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered NAC not to implement the decision.
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