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By Our Reporter

Pilots of Nepal Airlines have launched a symbolic strike affecting the flights. It is said that pilots working on a permanent basis have been protesting for the past few days, citing inequality in the services and facilities they receive and those received by pilots working on a contract basis.

As a result, services of Nepal Airlines’ both narrow body and wide body aircraft have been affected.

When the NA flights were disturbed by the strike, air passengers have been unable to get flight tickets. Even police were unable to bring Rabi Lamichhane, the president of Rastriya Swatantra Party to Kathmandu from Pokhara in lack of air ticket. Lamichhane is in police custody for over a month in Pokhara and the police is trying to bring him Kathmandu for his statement regarding the misuse of fund of Kathmandu-based Swarna Laxmi Cooperatives.

The NAC which has been in a bad health because of corruption and politicization since the 1990s is likely to suffer further from the recent strike of pilots. When the aircraft are grounded, the NAC is suffering a heavy loss. Some groups with vested interests seem to be trying to ruin the national flag carrier by compelling pilots to resort to strikes.

The permanent pilots have objected to the provision according to which the pilots working on a contract basis were getting better facilities for flying the same aircraft to same destinations than those working on a permanent basis. They have raised the issues for several months and discussed the issue with the NAC’s management committee. The committee then sent the file regarding the demands of pilots to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, which is now said to be in the Finance Ministry. When a delay was made in addressing their demands, the permanent pilots have stopped coming to work under different pretexts.  They have not officially announced strikes. And in lack of pilots, flights of NAC have been badly affected for days.