Kathmandu, May 4: Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) has accepted the tender bid of Babcock and Brown, an Irish Company, to lease its Boeing 767-300 for one and a half year, a press statement of the national flag carrier said today.

“According to the evaluation report submitted by a sub-committee, among all the six tender applicants, since Babcock and Brown had quoted the least price for the leasing out of the Boeing, the board of directors of the corporation last Tuesday decided to lease the aircraft,” the press release said.

The eight-member evaluation committee, according to the press statement, was formed under the co-ordination of the members of RNAC’s board of Directors and Joint Chief Comptroller Rameshwar Prasad Khanal.

The corporation has already issued a letter to the Irish Company to send a draft of the agreement for the leasing of the aircraft.

Reasoning the need to lease a wide body aircraft, the national airline has stated that the Boeing Company could not make available a Boeing 767 300 ER that RNAC had plans to lease purchase. “The company said that it would be able to supply the said aircraft only 21 months after the demand is made.”

Citing yet another reason, RNAC has said that the Boeing 757 it has leased from China South West Airlines (CSWA) will be flying back on June 27 this year upon the expiry of its lease period. “Since only two months remain for this aircraft to fly back, the corporation compulsorily needs a wide body aircraft to press in its international routes.”

Apart from the leased aircraft, RNAC has two Boeing 757s of its own. The national airline has been flying into above one dozen international destinations.

The selection of Babcock and Brown to lease the Boeing 767 comes after RNAC floated the global tender for the third time. Its two previous tenders earlier this year had failed to attract qualified bidders.