It has been found that most of the planes of Buddha Air, the leader of Nepali Airlines, are 20 years old. Buddha Air, which used to fly 15 ships, currently has eight ships that are more than 20 years old.
The other seven planes are also 10 years old. The planes, which was built with Buddha in 1995, was re-purchased in 2008 after being used by another company. Last year, two Buddha planes had a problem on the same day. The plane which flew from Kathmandu to Biratnagar, landed in Kathmandu again after the wheels could not unloaded.
It has been found that Buddha has a much older planes than Shree airlines, Saurya, Yeti, Tara, Guna, Sita, Summit and Nepal Airlines, which have been serving in Nepal. Buddha has 13 ATRs and 2 bridgecrafts.
Buddha Air has been expanding its services to Nepal since 1997. Buddha has been flying to Nepal's domestic flights only in accessible areas like Nepalgunj, Bhairahawa, Bharatpur, Simara, Janakpur, Biratnagar, Bhadrapur, Pokhara, Dhangadhi, Sarkhet and Tumlingtar.
Some of the events of Buddha Air:
On Monday, a 9N AJO flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara boarded a Buddha Air flight and returned to Kathmandu before reaching Pokhara. The ship had returned to Kathmandu after seeing smoke in the cockpit.
The plane of Buddha Air that flew from Kathmandu to Biratnagar landed in Kathmandu on Monday. A Buddha Air flight bound for Dhangadhi from Kathmandu made an emergency landing in Kathmandu on July 22 due to a problem as well.
Buddha Airlines under investigation after two planes were found to be faulty on the same day
The company has stated that the ATR 72 flight BHA 255 from Kathmandu to Dhangadhi had to land in Kathmandu due to hydraulic problem. The plane that flew from Kathmandu to Nepalgunj on July 24 landed in Kathmandu instead of landing at Nepalgunj saying that the passenger was unconscious.
Nineteen people, including three crew members, were killed when a Buddha Air flight (NN AEK B-190) crashed at Kotdanda in Lalitpur on September 25, 2011 due to technical problems.
A video of the then Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai being verbally abused by passengers went viral on 15 September over Buddha Air's flight delay for a minister. After the Buddha Air flight from Janakpur to Kathmandu was delayed for three hours, the passengers had vandalized the Janakpur Airport in December, 2019. Buddha Air was one of the safest aircraft in Nepal. Airlines Rating.com, the airline's rating website, has rated Buddha Air as "unsafe" after rating 409 airlines.
