Royal Nepal is sinking further. The airline's controversial Lauda 767 jet took off to Thailand a fortnight ago-to make Bangkok its base instead of Kathmandu. That is going to increase rentals from the present $3,350 per flight hour to about $5,000 per hour. It is unclear who is going to bear this additional burden. And who is going to pay for the plane to fly empty to Kathmandu and then fly to other destinations? One of the airline's own 757s, which had been grounded in Kathmandu for nearly two months because the airline had not paid up for an engine servicing job by a Chinese company, is now in Brunei for a patch-up job on its engines. This plane is expected to re-enter service next week.