Biman opens Dhaka-Toronto flight ticket sales, but ‘not for ordinary people’

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has started selling tickets for Dhaka-Toronto direct flight, and all were sold out within hours of the announcement, but a sales representative said the tickets are “not for ordinary people”.

The announcement on Saturday afternoon said the tickets of BG 305 flight on Mar 26 Independence Day were up for grabs and travellers will be able to book tickets on Biman’s website, and through call centre and authorised travel agents.

But the sales representative said not even the return tickets were available for ordinary people.

A Boeing Dreamliner 787-9 will start the “experimental” flight from Shahjalal International Airport at 11pm local time and land in Pearson International Airport at 7:15am on Mar 27 local time, according to Biman.

So who are the passengers of the “not-for-ordinary-people” flight?

Biman spokesperson Tahera Khandaker did not respond to bdnews24.com requests for the list of passengers.

In the evening, when bdnews24.com contacted Biman’s customer service centre, the sales representative said they did not get any instructions on selling tickets for the flight.

Comments from Biman officials were not available.

The civil aviation and tourism ministry in a letter to the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh said on Mar 7 that State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Mahbub Ali, Secretary Md Mokammel Hossain, a deputy secretary, a Biman director, the state minister’s aides and several other officials will be on board the flight.

Asked why Biman would not sell tickets of an “experimental commercial flight” even after an announcement, Bangladesh Aviation Owners Association adviser ATM Nazrul Islam said usually officials and guests travel on experimental flights, but there should not be problems if the rest of the tickets are sold to ordinary passengers.

“Because I don’t see a problem if there're passengers. Who'll cover the losses for the flight of such a huge aircraft?”

“And what is the experiment? For the pilot or the cabin crew? When we say ‘commercial’, it means revenue generation,” he said.

“If we call it an amateur joy ride, it cannot be commercial. And the question remains whether such a long journey can be a joy ride.”