UNB, Dhaka :
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has decided to add two wide-bodied aircraft to its fleet to smoothly carry Hajj pilgrims from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia this year.
The national flag carrier did not add any aircraft to it its fleet during hajj flight operation last year saying that the airliner was capable of carrying pilgrims with its own aircraft.
“Yes, we’ve decided to add two aircraft this time to keep flights on its other routes uninterrupted this year,” a Biman official involved in its planning team told UNB.
Some 100,000 people will perform hajj from Bangladesh this year. Biman will carry half of the total pilgrims while the rest by Saudi Airlines.
Biman recently floated a tender in this regard seeking that the aircraft must be manufactured on October 1, 1995 or later.
The aircraft will be taken from early August next on ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) basis which is popularly known as wet lease.
According to the tender document, the aircraft must have minimum 300 seats in two class configuration and must be capable of flying directly between Dhaka and Jeddah without any load penalty taking into consideration of passenger weight and baggage 120 kilogram.
Responding a query how Biman managed to carry pilgrims without taking any new aircraft last year, the official involved in planning said that last time Biman closed a couple of its routes during the Hajj period.
“Now Biman is not in a position to suspend its other routes…we have to keep up our own market,” he said adding that Biman’s position is now much better than it was a couple of years back.
In the first seven months of the current fiscal, Biman Bangladesh Airlines earned Tk 272 crore, which is very much unusual for the airliner as it suffered huge losses in the past years.
The national flag carrier counted a loss of Tk 10.37 crore in last July but made a profit of Tk 20.51 crore in August, while Tk 123.28 crore in September, Tk 86.79 crore in October, Tk 23.14 in November, Tk 1.81 crore in December and Tk 26.28 in January in the current fiscal. “We want to keep up the trend…suspending any route will cause losses to us,” the official said wishing not to be named.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has decided to add two wide-bodied aircraft to its fleet to smoothly carry Hajj pilgrims from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia this year.
The national flag carrier did not add any aircraft to it its fleet during hajj flight operation last year saying that the airliner was capable of carrying pilgrims with its own aircraft.
“Yes, we’ve decided to add two aircraft this time to keep flights on its other routes uninterrupted this year,” a Biman official involved in its planning team told UNB.
Some 100,000 people will perform hajj from Bangladesh this year. Biman will carry half of the total pilgrims while the rest by Saudi Airlines.
Biman recently floated a tender in this regard seeking that the aircraft must be manufactured on October 1, 1995 or later.
The aircraft will be taken from early August next on ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) basis which is popularly known as wet lease.
According to the tender document, the aircraft must have minimum 300 seats in two class configuration and must be capable of flying directly between Dhaka and Jeddah without any load penalty taking into consideration of passenger weight and baggage 120 kilogram.
Responding a query how Biman managed to carry pilgrims without taking any new aircraft last year, the official involved in planning said that last time Biman closed a couple of its routes during the Hajj period.
“Now Biman is not in a position to suspend its other routes…we have to keep up our own market,” he said adding that Biman’s position is now much better than it was a couple of years back.
In the first seven months of the current fiscal, Biman Bangladesh Airlines earned Tk 272 crore, which is very much unusual for the airliner as it suffered huge losses in the past years.
The national flag carrier counted a loss of Tk 10.37 crore in last July but made a profit of Tk 20.51 crore in August, while Tk 123.28 crore in September, Tk 86.79 crore in October, Tk 23.14 in November, Tk 1.81 crore in December and Tk 26.28 in January in the current fiscal. “We want to keep up the trend…suspending any route will cause losses to us,” the official said wishing not to be named.
