October 13: It has been found that there were irregularities while Nepal Airlines Company (NAC) auctioned its aircraft of the Boeing 757 series.

Despite approving the tender presented by a Florida-based American company Avian System Inc for the auction, NAC has decided to provide the aircraft to another company, it has been revealed.

A meeting of the board of directors (BoD) of NAC on Sunday has decided to sell the aircraft to BB Airways, informed Sugat Ratna Kansakar, managing director of NAC. The decision, however, was revealed only on Thursday.

After failing to auction the aircraft even upon calling global tender for three times, the NAC had invited the American company Avian System Inc to sign an agreement.

A meeting of the NAC management on August 28 had accepted the proposal of Avian System Inc. As per the decision of its management committee, NAC had emailed the company on September 20 about selling the aircraft to it.

NAC spokesperson Rabindra Shrestha had informed the American company that the Nepali’s flag carrier has accepted their proposal, through phone calls and emails. The date for the officials of the American company to visit Nepal was scheduled as per the email correspondence.

MD Kansakar was also informed about the series of talks happening between NAC and the American company.

Although the officials of Avian System Inc are scheduled to arrive Nepal on October 14 for the deal, NAC on Thursday broke its promise and announced to sell the aircraft to BB Airways. This shows that there has been series of irregularities in the auction process.

A source claimed that the Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jitendra Narayan Dev was also involved in the auction process.