It has become routine that any decision by the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) ends up for scrutiny by the Parliament\'s Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The latest to come up before the PAC involves the purchase of two French-made ATR72-500 aircraft. Last week, the Committee ordered RNAC to furnish all relevant studies and papers on the aircraft purchase for assessment.

The airline was preparing to pay the $ 400,000 "commitment fee" when the PAC stepped in and ordered it to stop the purchase until the inquiry was over.

The national flag-carrier had resolved to go for the aircraft on 11 August at $16.5 million a piece. Defending the decision, RNAC Executive Director Hari Bhakta Shrestha said, it was based on earlier reports and recent re-evaluation and route-profitability studies.

Shrestha told the committee that the company had short-listed four aircraft for possible selection, and these were again assessed for their viability on short hops to India. The ATRs were found to have compare more favourably than its nearest competitor, the Canadian Dash-8 series, he said.