2 more aircraft to board Biman fleet

Two more chartered aircraft will arrive in Dhaka on Wednesday to strengthen the ramshackle, dwindling fleet of Biman Bangladesh Airlines that loses crores of taka to management flaws. Corrected

Dhaka, Nov 4 (bdnews24.com) – Two more chartered aircraft will arrive in Dhaka on Wednesday to strengthen the ramshackle, dwindling fleet of Biman Bangladesh Airlines that loses crores of taka to management flaws.

The two 737-model 189-seater aircraft had been chartered from Istanbul-based Pegasus Airlines, Biman spokesman Nafees Ahmed Imtiazuddin told bdnews24.com on Tuesday.

Biman plans to lease a few aircraft to plug its scheduling gap before receiving 10 planes from Boeing under a deal worth $250 crore.

The national airline was forced to halt its flights to New York, Paris, Tokyo, Frankfurt, Brussels, Yangon and Mumbai in 2006 due to a shortage of funds and aircraft.

The two new additions would fly to and from various regional destinations including Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore, Kolkata, New Delhi, the spokesman said.

Currently, Biman has at present two leased 747-model aircraft, of which the one from Orient Thai Airlines is ferrying Hajj pilgrims and the other from Cebu Airlines is yet to arrive, he said.

The number of Biman flights has been reduced to 67 for the winter schedule on 17 international and three domestic routes, effective from Oct. 26, according to reports.

Nafees also said in the new schedule "five flights will replace seven as per our capacity."

He attributed the change to the recurring breakdown of the old aircraft leading to the rescheduling on the basis of "considering three DC-10s instead of four in the past."

At present, only seven of the 11 Biman-owned aircraft fly the sky– three of the five DC-10s, two of the four F-28s, and the two Airbuses, according to Biman flight operations obtained on Thursday.

The flag carrier has grounded its flights shuttling along nine international routes including New York, Paris, Frankfurt, and Dubai over past two years.

Biman became a public limited company in July last year and some 1863 of its personnel were given a "golden handshake' in the following month. It now has a 3000-strong workforce.

The company's loss totalled $ 1.2 crore in FY 2007-8 against $ 8 crore in the pervious fiscal, reports the Centre for Asia-Pacific Aviation.

Biman signed a $250 crore deal with Boeing of the USA last year for 10 aircrafts.

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