Twenty-one foreign firms including Lufthansa Consulting and Airbus have submitted letters of intent (LoI) to provide world class management consultancy services to Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).

The national flag carrier had asked for LoIs to improve its overall system performance by inducting a management consultancy service provider in the first phase, and handing over the management contract in the second phase.

On August 30, NAC had given a 30-day deadline for potential applicants to submit their LoIs that ended on Thursday.

NAC spokesperson Ram Hari Sharma said they had received LoIs from management consultancy service providers from, among other countries, the US, Germany, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

He added that the LoIs would be opened and evaluated only from Monday due to the occurrence of public and weekend holidays until then. According to Sharma, a short list of qualified applicants will be made, and they will be invited to submit requests for proposal (RFP) through a bidding process.

NAC will estimate the cost of the project after the companies have been short listed.

The Tourism Ministry has written to the Finance Ministry to finance the project. NAC has long been facing criticism for its failure to assure quality and efficiency.

The consultancy services include a need assessment and gap analysis of the overall organization and subsequent implementation of an overall improvement scheme at NAC.

As per the LoI, the gap analysis phase would last two months and the performance improvement or the management contract phase would last two years.

The performance improvement phase can be extended if required, the corporation said.

The national flag carrier said that a fleet expansion programme would be executed simultaneously, and the consultant would provide assistance and advice for this programme too.

The need assessment and gap analysis would cover NAC’s four departments-operations, engineering, general management and finance. The hopeful consultancy company should have successfully undertaken similar assignments in the past 10 years.

NAC moved to induct a foreign management partner after two global companies, Airbus and Lufthansa Consulting, expressed interest in coming aboard.

In March, German-based Lufthansa Consulting and German Aviation Capital had submitted their proposals to the Prime Minister’s Office to provide consultancy and management services to improve the performance of NAC.

The two companies had proposed overseeing NAC’s major departments besides holding the post of chief operating officer to help the struggling flag carrier.

German Aviation Capital had proposed that if NAC were to sign an agreement with Lufthansa Consulting, it would help the airline finance the purchase of four narrow-body and two wide-body jets.

Recently, European aviation giant Airbus expressed its readiness to study the engineering and operation departments of NAC and recommend appropriate measures to improve these key departments.