Nepal’s national flag carrier, NAC, is grounded for years. Experts warn of collapse if not privatised

The future of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), Nepal’s national flag carrier, looks bleak. Poor leadership and a lack of vision have left the company in debt of over RS 40 billion. In the past five years alone, the NAC has had five different executives leading it and none of them has been able to do anything to the massive debt the corporation incurs on a yearly basis.

Things have become so bad that the money it was given to buy four aircraft by the Employee Provident Fund and Citizen Investment Trust is likely to be wasted. Out of all the aircraft the NAC has, it only uses six. The remaining six lay grounded at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). Despite the corporation only operating six aeroplanes, it still employs nearly 2,000 staff members including people working at ground holding at the TIA.