First Time in the World Bidding Farewell to ATR 9N-AIN
Buddha Air has become the first airline company in the world to bid farewell to an ATR-42 aircraft after completing 70,000 cycles based on commercial flights.
September 10, 2024, marked an important landmark in Nepal’s aviation history. Amidst a grand ceremony held at Tribhuvan International Airport, Buddha Air bid farewell to aircraft ATR 42-320 from its fleet of commercial flights.
This was the first-ever event in the Nepali sky in which an ATR Company aircraft with the manufacturing serial number MSN-403, registered with the call sign 9N-AIN at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), was given a farewell.
This aircraft received a special Water Canoning Salute for its twentynine years of service. It flew for 23,032 hours in the Nepali sky and served around 1.8 million passengers. At the end of its commercial flight cycle, it wound up with a mountain flight.
In the aviation sector, such a salute to an aircraft is considered like a red carpet for honored personalities. This 9N-AIN aircraft, which has not had any minor incidents and has flown smoothly for up to 70 thousand flight cycles (one landing a cycle), has now departed from the Nepali sky forever.
The aircraft manufacturing company ATR has made it mandatory that its aircraft retire from commercial flights after 70,000 flight cycles. The reason behind this provision is that the structural airframe of the aircraft weakens due to heat, water, exposure to wind, runway take-off, and landing roll with loads after a certain cycle.
Buddha Air bid farewell to the aircraft, abiding by the same rules of the manufacturing company. The avionics and spare parts in this aircraft that can be reused according to the rules of the manufacturing company will be used on another aircraft. Its hollow frame (livery) will be handed over to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal for emergency exercise.
‘This is a historic moment,' Buddha Air's executive chairman Birendra Bahadur Basnet said in his emotional farewell speech at the ceremony. ‘Buddha Air has become the first airline company in the world to bid farewell to an ATR-42 aircraft after completing 70,000 cycles based on commercial flights.'
Grand farewell ceremonies are organized from time to time in honor of world-renowned aircraft. The supersonic Concorde, which had a very expensive operating cost, was retired from commercial flight in 2003 after twenty-seven years of sky journey.
These days, operators are rapidly introducing the latest Boeing 777X, Airbus A350, and Boeing 787 Dreamliner in their fleets, which consume less fuel and have economical operating costs. The American Boeing 747, nicknamed 'Queen of the Skies,' is being bid farewell by the airlines from their fleet. However, very few aircraft go after completing the cycle.
Captain YK Bhattarai, a retired Boeing 757 pilot from Nepal Airlines Corporation, said that though there have been cases of aircraft retiring from their commercial flights, he recalls that he did not have the opportunity to witness such a rare occasion before in Nepal.
Nepali airlines have been banned from entering the airspace of member countries of the European Union (EU) for a decade. These airlines are on the EU's Serious Security Concern (SSC) list. It is not yet known when this restriction will be retracted.
The Deputy Chief of Mission of the French Embassy in Nepal, Elsa Calley, praised Buddha Air for retiring the commercial flight of the ATR aircraft produced by European countries. Nepal's civil aviation system is facing the challenges of modernizing the aviation industry and improving flight safety standards.
I praise Buddha Air for retiring the commercial flight of the ATR aircraft produced by European countries after completing its flight cycle.
- MS. ELSA CALLEY The Deputy Chief of Mission of the French Embassy in Nepal
Before participating in the farewell ceremony of the ATR aircraft, Deputy Chief Calley was one of the guest passengers who took the last mountain flight in the plane. She said the farewell ceremony was inspiring and thanked Buddha Air for inviting her. She expressed her appreciation for Buddha Air's modern and organized hangar and applauded the excellent maintenance of the aircraft.
Kaushal Bahadur Malla, who participated on behalf of ATR's regional office in the Asia Pacific, praised the Nepali engineers and technicians working in Buddha Air for being able to fly this aircraft for the entire cycle. ‘Buddha Air's maintenance and operation staff made a significant contribution to ATR Airlines,’ said Malla, ‘the last flight was also very smooth. Now we (ATR) can proudly claim that the goal of 70,000 cycles designed by ATR has been successfully achieved.’
Pawan Tanwani, another representative of ATR, remarked to the media that the aircraft's farewell event was a 'surprise.' He praised Buddha Air's strict adherence to the instructions given by the manufacturing company and extraordinary practice of maintaining and managing the aircraft.
I applaud Buddha Air's technical team for upholding Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) standards practiced by companies in advanced countries.
- Pawan Tanwani, Representative of ATR
He mentioned that this ATR-42 aircraft is the first in the world to retire from commercial flight. He also praised Buddha Air's technical team by adding that Nepali Airlines’ maintenance and flight operations of ATR aircraft are up to the standards of Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) of the companies in advanced countries.
In developed countries, aircraft are sold to third countries without completing the flight cycle, where there is less aviation business. Some convert such aircraft into cargo carriers. If an airline company faces a financial crisis, relatively older crafts may become scraps. So, old model aircraft produced before the year 2000 are not able to complete their commercial flight cycles.
This ATR aircraft, jointly manufactured by France and Italy, can carry 47 passengers. It was first flown by the European company Air Caledonie in September 1995.
Out of a total of twenty-nine years of flight span, the aircraft flew in the skies outside Nepal for thirteen years, completing 25,477 flight cycles in 12,588 hours.
In August 2008, Buddha Air purchased the ATR aircraft from Air Caledonie and brought it to Kathmandu. Executive Chairman Basnet said this was the first ATR for Buddha Air. This was the first 'lucky' plane to take Buddha Air on the journey to ATR. Before this aircraft came to Buddha's fleet, Buddha Air, which was established in October 1997, was operating services to domestic destinations through seven American twin-engine turboprop Beechcraft planes.
‘This is a historic moment,‘Buddha Air has become the first airline company in the world to bid farewell to an ATR-42 aircraft after completing 70,000 cycles based on commercial flights.'
- MR. BIRENDRA BAHADUR BASNET Chairperson, Buddha Air
After August 2008, this aircraft, registered under the name Alpha India November (AIN), flew continuously for sixteen years. During this period, it spent 23,032 hours in the sky and served at least 1.8 million passengers in 44,477 flights (cycles).
According to the ATR Company, it produced around one thousand aircrafts of this model before 1996. Only 250 of those aircraft are currently in active service and use around the world.
However, after 1996, ATR stopped producing aircraft of this model. ATR later focused on the production of advanced and improved versions of the aircraft with more powerful engines, such as the ATR42-500.
Before Buddha, Necon Air introduced this aircraft model to the Nepali sky for the first time. However, Necon's ATR 42-320 could not complete the flight cycle in the Nepali sky as the company went through a financial catastrophe.
We are witness to the growth of Buddha Air as an organized and successful airline company.
- Ashok SJB Rana, CEO of Himalayan Bank
Ashok Rana, Chief Executive Officer of Himalayan Bank, has been involved in financial cooperation with most of Nepal's airline companies for decades. He narrated his experience that he had never seen an airplane officially retired from service in the Nepali skies in his entire banking career of more than two decades.
‘This farewell ceremony of this aircraft is an extraordinary moment for us. I have never seen a scene of bidding farewell to a plane,’ CEO Rana remarked, ‘So far, thirty-nine domestic airlines have failed in Nepali skies. And they became history. We became a part of those airlines in one form or another.’
We are witnesses to the weakness and mismanagement of those airlines. We also see Buddha Air as an organized and successful airline company.
At the ceremony, he applauded Buddha Air for occupying more than sixty percent of the domestic market and credited the company's flexibility and professionalism for this achievement.
Buddha Air has made 661,974 flights in 27 years from its commencement in 1997 until September 2024. 23.6 million passengers have taken services from these flights. It operates around 150 daily two-way flights on 43 air routes in 13 cities nationwide.
At present, Buddha has a sixty-five percent share in the domestic market. Buddha Air, which has previously flown to Paro in Bhutan and Kolkata in India, has now connected Kathmandu with Varanasi in India for international flights.
There are eighteen ATR aircraft with Buddha Airlines, two of which have a capacity of 47 seats and the remaining sixteen with a capacity of 72 passengers. It is the seventh-largest ATR fleet in the world.
Buddha Air no longer has the nineteen-seater small American Beechcraft aircraft. In February 2023, Buddha sold the last two Beechcraft 1900-C to the Canadian Aviation Company.
According to Buddha Air’s engineer and Director, Mangesh Thapa, the retired Alpha India November (AIN) ATR-42 was a mentor aircraft for the company's technicians and engineers.
‘On September 7, 2008, my engineer friend Prabir Kumar Thapa and I were sent to Toulouse, France, to receive this aircraft. At that time, we did not know about ATR aircrafts. We had a huge challenge and responsibility. We received it well. Today, we have been able to operate eighteen ATR aircraft. We are adding another ATR in the next few months.’
Captain Shovan Basnet and co-pilot Abinash Kharel made the last mountain flight from Kathmandu before the aircraft retired.
The hostesses Bidhayika Koirala and Manjali Thapa gave twenty distinguished passengers on board a tour of the mountains from Mount Everest, the highest snow peak in the world, to Mount Dhaulagiri in the west.
Captain Basnet, who started flying with this plane for the first time as a co-pilot, was emotional at the farewell ceremony of the aircraft. He said he took his initial training from this aircraft when he became a co-pilot sixteen years ago. ‘This will be a memorable moment for the rest of my life,’ he said, ‘I got the opportunity to make my last flight as a captain in the same aircraft.’
That morning, after landing, the crew did not take the passengers to the domestic apron. Instead, the aircraft was taken to the hangar of Buddha Air in the northeast from the central runway of Kathmandu Airport, and the passengers were escorted to the farewell ceremony.
After the final mountain flight, the aircraft rested both its wings so that it would never fly again in the skies. Then, it witnessed the ATR farewell ceremony.
The pilot, co-pilot, flight attendants, maintenance engineers, technicians, and other officials who made the first flight in that plane stood in front of the aircraft for hours, clicking pictures and recollecting the memories into photos and videography.
Goodbye 9N-AIN!