Special Correspondent :
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has planned to cut the flight frequencies in various routes in the face of its rising operational costs.
Biman is now operating a total of 366 flights to 22 domestic and international routes in a week.
“We would slash both domestic and international flights frequencies soon keeping its current route map intact,” Enamul Bari, Chairman of Biman Bangladesh Airlines told The New Nation on Sunday.
He said, Biman would not suspend any routes but rearrange its flights as per the plan. In some destinations Biman is operating flights all week days in and drawing limited passengers. In that case, we would slash flights from these routes.
“The main objective of our plan is to minimize Biman’s operational cost which is on the rise due to recent increase in jet fuel prices,” said Enamul Bari. It would also help to enhance Biman’s operational efficiency as well as reduce losses,” said Enamul Bari.
According to him, jet fuel accounts for 30-40 per cent of Biman’s flight operation cost.
Biman is now operating six flights between Dhaka and Riyadh, seven between Dhaka and Jeddah, Dhaka and Muscat, Dhaka and Abu Dhabi, Dhaka and Dubai, Dhaka and Bangkok, Dhaka and Singapore, Dhaka and Katmandu, three between Dhaka and Dammam, Dhaka and Doha, Dhaka and Kuwait and Dhaka and Yangon, four between Dhaka and London, 14 between Dhaka and Kolkata, 10 between Dhaka and Kuala Lumpur in a week.
On top of this, Biman is operating domestic fights in the seven routes within the country.
It is operating six flights per week in the Dhaka-Chittagong route, five in Dhaka-Jessore route, three in Dhaka-Rajshahi route and two flights in Dhaka-Barisal and Dhaka-Syedpur, Dhaka- Cox’s Bazar and Dhaka-Sylhet routes in every week.
“Biman is now struggling to maintain the flight schedules because of a limited number of aircraft in its fleet. This has led to delays and cancellation of flights severely tarnishing image of the national flag carrier as well as drop in its passengers,” a high official of Biman told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
“The situation has forced us to trim down numbers of Biman’s weekly flights to the routes from where it is drawing limited number of passengers,” he added.
Biman draws the highest number of passengers from Dhaka to Kuala Lumpur and Dhaka Chittagong routes while it’s Dhaka-Barisal and Dhaka- Yangon routes draw a limited number of passengers.
It has air service agreements with 42 countries and currently flies to 16 different countries.
Biman’s fleet is now comprising with 12 aircrafts which including six Boeing 777-300 ER, four 737-800 and two DASH-8, according to Biman’s webpage.
