PT DI Sent A Plane CN235-220 to Nepal

INILAH, Bandung - Wednesday (10/30/2019), PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) sent a CN235-220 Military Transport aircraft to the Nepal Army.

The ferry flight activity was carried out at the PT DI Fixed Wing Hangar to Kathmandu, Nepal which was planned to arrive on Saturday (11/02/2019).

Director of PT DI Elfien Goentoro said the delivery of the aircraft was based on a contract to procure one CN235-220 Military Transport aircraft on June 16, 2017. More specifically, the purchase was in accordance with the contract number MGO / Fixed Wing / 073/74/65 between PT DI with the Nepal Army.

"Thank God we can finish on time so that today we can send it to Kathmandu," Elfien said.
According to him, the delivery was carried out by Capt Esther Gayatri Saleh as a test pilot in command and Capt Ervan Gustanto as a copilot. They flew the CN235-220 aircraft from Husein Sastranegara Airport, Bandung to Medan. Then, the flight route continues to Yangon, Myanmar then to Dhaka, Bangladesh and flies back to Kathmandu, Nepal as the final destination.

He admitted the CN235-220 aircraft was a multirole aircraft with a carrying capacity of 48 passengers that could be used for several missions. Starting from reconnaissance, maritime patrols, to the transport of armed forces.

A number of excess aircraft ordered by Nepal could also play a role for quick change configurations (troop / taratroop, VIP, medical evacuation, passanger, and cargo.
"Indeed, the Nepalese Army has ordered a number of types. (Components) for some of these types we have been confused," he said.

He admitted that the CN235-220 Military Transport aircraft export program for Nepal was partly recognized as working capital funded by the Indonesian Export Financing Agency (LPEI) or Indonesia Eximbank with the National Interest Account (NIA) scheme.

The use of the NIA scheme from LPEI or Indonesia Eximbank is a special assignment from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia to provide aircraft export financing, where LPEI or Indonesia Eximbank also supports PTDI in penetrating markets in Africa and South Asia.
Until now, PT DI has succeeded in producing and sending 68 units of CN235 aircraft for domestic and overseas. That figure is out of a total of 285 units of the CN235 series aircraft population in the world.

The domestic operators using CN235 series aircraft are the Indonesian Air Force and the Navy. While foreign operators are Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, South Korea, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates and Senegal.