Nepal Air's second Airbus A320 comes with 5 tons of quake relief

HAMBURG, Germany – Nepal Airlines took delivery of a new Airbus A320 that will fly to the earthquake-ravaged nation with 5 tons of relief supplies. The Thursday morning delivery completes Nepal Airlines' order for two new Airbus A320 aircraft. The carrier received its first of the aircraft in February.

The delivery date for the second A320 had been planned prior to Saturday's 7.8-magnitude earthquake that shook much of Nepal. But given its timing, European jetmaker Airbus teamed up with German relief organization Humedica to help send the aid.

"It's a plane that's being sent out anyway," Humedica coordinator Heidi Nicklin said Thursday morning from a hangar at Airbus' Finkenwerder assembly line facility in Hamburg. "Because it's flying empty, we have been given the opportunity to fly about 5 tons of relief supplies."

The shipment – which includes medicine as well as items such as tents and water purification supplies – can help up thousands of victims, Nicklin says.

"We've also been given 10 seats on the plane, as we are able to send a team – mainly doctors and two nurses," Nicklin adds.

The flight will travel from Hamburg to Nepal by way of Doha, Qatar, where the A320 will make a needed refueling stop. The flight could leave as early as Thursday, though the exact timing will depend on when a landing slot opens in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu. Operations at that airport -- Nepal's busiest -- have been difficult in the wake of the earthquake.

Nicklin says the team going out in the delivery flight will join another Humedica relief team already on the ground in Nepal.

The scale of the disaster in the Himalayan nation has been immense, with at least 10,000 thought to be injured and thousands killed. The original quake and the powerful aftershocks that have followed have destroyed around 70,000 houses and damaged another 530,000, according to the United Nations.