Nepal Airlines, formerly known as Royal Nepal Airlines) is the flag carrier airline of Nepal and also the national airline of Nepal. Its head office is in the NAC Building (formerly RNAC Building) in Kathmandu,[1][2] and its main base is Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. The airline was established in July 1958 as Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation (RNAC) on the same day in which Thai Air was established leading to be Nepal's first airline. The airline's first aircraft was a Douglas DC-3, used to serve domestic routes and a handful of destinations in India. The airline acquired its first jet aircraft, Boeing 727s, in 1972. In 2004 the government of Nepal decided to sell off 49% of its stake in Nepal Airlines to the private sector. As of May 2014, the airline operates a fleet of nine aircraft. Like all Nepalese airlines, Nepal Airlines is included in the list of air carriers banned in the EU, as of December 2013. On 30 April 2015, Nepal Airlines received its second Airbus A320, Lumbini. The aircraft was filled with 5 tonnes of aid material to be flown from the Airbus factory in Hamburg, to Nepal on delivery of the aircraft. The aid material will be used in the relief effort for the April 2015 Nepal earthquake. Nepal airlines is currently in the process of buying two wide body aircraft. The airline has signed a letter of understanding to pre-order an unknown amount of Airbus A330s.
