Drukair resumed its domestic flights on Tuesday following maintenance and a test flight the day before.
The flights to all three domestic airports remained temporarily suspended for 11 days after the Inter Turbine Temperature or ITT was found to be high in one of the engines of its ATR aircraft.
It was then taken to Singapore for maintenance. “We had to do a detailed inspection like Baroscopic inspection to see what the problems were,” Drukair’s CEO Tandi Wangchuk said.
“We found out that some of the parts have aged and that one of the impellers was not working out of the 32 impellers. Those parts were replaced and we had a proving flight from Paro to Bumthang and back to observe the engine. The engine behaved normally, that’s why we resumed our flights.”
The CEO added that from the engineering point of view, the temperature of the engine was actually within the limits, but the pilots were not comfortable taking chances considering the country’s terrain.
“In case of single engine failure, the other engine has to take the full load. Pilots were not very sure that the other engine could handle the whole load.”
Drukair’s ATR aircraft is more than 14 years old. The airline says its periodic maintenance was carried out as per the mandates of its manufacturer and the Bhutan Civil Aviation Authority.
A total of 18 flights were cancelled following the grounding of the aircraft.
Meanwhile, the national airline also announced that airfares have been slashed beginning this month due to a cut in air fuel price. The decrease is in between 5 and 25 per cent.
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