Dhaka, May 1 (bdnews24.com)— With the addition of its first wide-bodied aircraft, Bangladesh's largest private passenger carrier GMG Airlines relaunched itself on Saturday, unveiling a new logo.
Salman F Rahman, vice-chairman of Beximco Group, civil aviation secretary Shafique Mehedi and GMG managing director Sahab Sattar were present at Shahjalal International Airport when the new plane arrived Saturday afternoon.
GMG later launched its new logo at Radisson Water Garden Hotel after taking delivery of the Boeing 767-300ER, a first for a Bangladeshi carrier.
Faruk Khan, Bangladesh's commerce minister, unveiled the new logo and noted that Awami League was in government when this private airline was launched.
Salman F Rahman, the private investment adviser to the Awami League chief, observed that now, when GMG was fast spreading its wings, Awami League was once again in power.
"This shows that AL rule brings about a business friendly climate," Khan said.
The new aircraft, an addition to the six-strong fleet, has 264 seats and will have business and economy class.
The aircraft will fly to Dubai, Doha, Riyadh and Jeddah of the Middle East destinations, officials of the private airline said.
Majority stakeholder Beximco, the country's biggest business conglomerate, has injected crores into the airline since it bought a 50 percent stake last June to rev up the wobbling carrier.
Salman said later at a news conference that more aircraft will be added to the fleet to launch new routes in future.
Rahman pointed to the dominance of foreign operators and said that these operators currently controlled 85 percent share of Bangladesh's $400 million a month aviation market.
Rahman said that GMG was not, however, competing with Biman as "some people may have perceived", but "will complement it".
GMG flies two MD-82 and one MD-83 planes to eight international destinations and three Dash-8 aircraft to six domestic routes.
It is also in the process of acquiring another wide-bodied Boeing 767 aircraft and two narrow-bodied new generation aircraft.
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