What Are the Oldest Active Aircraft in Nepal Airlines’ Fleet?

Nepal Airlines Corporation (RA) operates six active aircraft across three types, and the spread between the oldest and youngest is stark even by the standards of a small state carrier: a pair of De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otters that have been flying Nepal’s mountain routes for more than four decades, alongside four Airbus jets acquired within the past 11 years. The airline’s roots go back to July 1958, when it began life as Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation with a single Douglas DC-3 Dakota, and its fleet has since passed through Hawker Siddeley HS-748s, Boeing 727s, and Boeing 757s before narrowing to the mix it flies today. This breakdown looks at the oldest individual aircraft in each type Nepal Airlines currently operates, and what has kept each one flying.

De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter: 9N-ABT And 9N-ABU, over 42 Years Old

Nepal Airlines’ oldest active aircraft are not its widebodies but its smallest ones. The carrier’s two DHC-6-300 Twin Otters, registered 9N-ABT and 9N-ABU, carry an average age exceeding 42 years, having entered the fleet in January 2007 on airframes manufactured decades earlier, before the DHC-6-300 series ceased production altogether in 1988. Both aircraft are configured for 19 economy-class passengers and remain the workhorses of Nepal Airlines’ domestic STOL network, connecting settlements such as Bhojpur and Tulsipur that would otherwise require days of overland travel.

No modern aircraft has directly replaced the Twin Otter’s role in Nepal, and that is largely by design rather than neglect. The type’s short-field performance suits airstrips that a newer, larger aircraft simply cannot use, which is why operators across the country, not just Nepal Airlines, continue to fly Twin Otters built as far back as the 1960s. Avio Space’s broader look at fleet age across Nepal’s carriers found aircraft flying commercially in the country that are even older than Nepal Airlines’ pair, underscoring how structural the reliance on ageing turboprops and STOL aircraft has become across the entire domestic sector, not just at the flag carrier.

Airbus A320-200: 9N-AKW “Sagarmatha,” 11.5 Years Old

Nepal Airlines’ oldest Airbus A320 is 9N-AKW, named Sagarmatha after the Nepali name for Mount Everest. Carrying manufacturer serial number 6445, the aircraft was built at Airbus’ Hamburg (XFW) facility in Germany and first flew under the test registration D-AXAR before its delivery to Nepal Airlines in February 2015. It was ferried from Hamburg to Kathmandu via Doha on February 7-8, 2015, before entering commercial service.

The aircraft is configured with 158 seats, split between 8 Business Class and 150 Economy Class, and is powered by two International Aero Engines (IAE) turbofans. More than a decade into its career with the airline, Sagarmatha remains in active service on Nepal Airlines’ short-haul international and domestic routes.

• MSN 6445, powered by two IAE engines
• First flew as D-AXAR, delivered February 2015
• Ferried Hamburg–Doha–Kathmandu over two days
• Configured with 8 Business and 150 Economy seats

Airbus A320-200: 9N-AKX “Lumbini,” 11.3 Years Old

Nepal Airlines’ second A320, registered 9N-AKX and named Lumbini after the birthplace of Buddha, followed Sagarmatha into the fleet by just two months. Built at the same Hamburg facility under manufacturer serial number 6555, the aircraft conducted its test flights as D-AVVI before delivery in April 2015. It made the Hamburg-to-Kathmandu delivery flight via Doha between April 30 and May 1, 2015.

Lumbini shares an identical 158-seat configuration with its sister aircraft, comprising 8 Business Class and 150 Economy Class seats, and is likewise powered by two IAE engines. Together, the two A320s form the backbone of Nepal Airlines’ narrowbody operation, at an average age of roughly 11.4 years, well short of the multi-decade histories carried by the airline’s Twin Otters.

• MSN 6555, powered by two IAE engines
• First flew as D-AVVI, delivered April 2015
• Ferried Hamburg–Doha–Kathmandu over two days
• Configured with 8 Business and 150 Economy seats

Airbus A330-200: 9N-ALY “Annapurna” And 9N-ALZ “Makalu,” Around 8 Years Old

Nepal Airlines’ two Airbus A330-200s are its youngest and most consequential aircraft, both for what they were meant to achieve and for the controversy that surrounded their purchase. Registered 9N-ALY and named Annapurna, the first was built at Airbus’ Toulouse (TLS) facility under MSN 1872, first flew as F-WWCT, and was delivered in June 2018, ferried directly from Toulouse to Kathmandu on June 27-28, 2018. Its sister aircraft, 9N-ALZ, named Makalu, carries MSN 1878, first flew as F-WWYN, and was delivered a month later in July 2018, arriving in Kathmandu on July 25-26.

Both widebodies are configured with 274 seats, comprising 18 Business Class and 256 Economy Class, and are powered by two Rolls-Royce engines. They were acquired to open direct routes to Europe and Australia, but that ambition collided almost immediately with reality: the European Union had already banned Nepali carriers from its airspace in 2013, years before the A330s arrived, which meant the aircraft entered service unable to fly to the market they were bought to serve.

The procurement itself became the biggest aviation corruption case in Nepal’s history, with a parliamentary investigation finding the corporation had incurred a loss of more than Rs 4 billion on the deal. The aircraft were bought not directly from Airbus but through a coalition of intermediary leasing firms, funded by roughly Rs 24 billion in loans from Nepal’s Employee Provident Fund and Citizen Investment Trust, and the case ultimately sent Nepal Airlines’ then-managing director and several government officials to prison. Nearly a decade later, the two A330s remain in active service, but the routes to Europe they were purchased to fly remain closed to them.

• 9N-ALY “Annapurna”: MSN 1872, delivered June 2018, 8.2 years old
• 9N-ALZ “Makalu”: MSN 1878, delivered July 2018, 8.1 years old
• Both configured with 18 Business and 256 Economy seats
• Powered by two Rolls-Royce engines each

A Fleet Shaped as Much by Debt as by Age

Nepal Airlines’ fleet age cannot be separated from its balance sheet. The carrier has never recorded a profitable year in its history, and its outstanding debt has climbed past Rs 55 billion, driven overwhelmingly by the loans taken out for the very Airbus jets that now anchor its active fleet. Alongside the A330 and A320 loans, the airline is also still carrying a separate financial burden from a cluster of Chinese-built MA60 and Y12E aircraft that have sat grounded and unsellable at Kathmandu for years, racking up insurance and maintenance costs while generating no revenue at all.

That combined debt load, now described by Nepal’s Office of the Auditor General as a risk to the pension savings of millions of ordinary Nepali workers, has left the airline with little room to accelerate fleet renewal even where it might want to. A 2023 internal proposal to acquire additional Airbus narrowbodies, ATR turboprops, and replacement Twin Otters has yet to translate into confirmed orders, which means the same six aircraft profiled here are likely to remain Nepal Airlines’ entire active fleet for some time to come.

Nepal Airlines’ Fleet at a Glance

Data: planespotters.net

The 34-year gap between Nepal Airlines’ oldest Twin Otter and its youngest A330 tells two different stories about the same airline. On the widebody and narrowbody side, the fleet is relatively young by global standards, built almost entirely within the last decade and a half. On the STOL side, the carrier is still flying airframes built before the type itself went out of production, kept airworthy less by choice than by the absence of any comparably capable, comparably affordable alternative for Nepal’s mountain airstrips. Both halves of that story, the debt-financed widebodies and the ageing Twin Otters, now weigh on an airline whose balance sheet leaves little margin to resolve either one quickly.