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the first week of October, three years after it discarded the route
from its schedule to avoid big losses. 'Biman is planning to
operate two flights a week on the Dhaka-New York route…The
authorities have started preparing for the operations,' civil
aviation and tourism minister GM Quader told New Age at his office on
Thursday. The US authorities have agreed to provide Biman slots
[permission for landings and takeoffs] from October, he informed.
The national flag carrier suspended Dhaka- New York flight on July 29,
2006 amid perennial financial losses and serious shortage of planes.
According to an estimate of the airlines, a single Dhaka-New York
flight by DC-10 cost Biman a loss of Tk 55 lakh. A fresh move was
on to arrange new generation aircraft on lease for the national
airlines to operate flights on the route, the minister said, adding
that resumption of Dhaka- New York flight was a political commitment
of the Awami League-led government. Flights on other international
routes, which the national carrier had to suspend for aircraft
shortage, would also resume with addition of new aircrafts to its
fleet. The Biman board has directed the authorities concerned for
fresh initiatives to take new generation aircraft on lease. 'Biman
is going to take four aircraft on lease. The board has stopped the
ongoing process to arrange three Boeing 777 ERs on lease to avail of
a better offer and ensure transparency,' the civil aviation minister
said. An international tender would be floated soon to complete
the leasing process within a month. US plane maker Boeing earlier
proposed that it would deliver two wide-bodied aircraft to Biman two
years ahead of the schedule. According to a 2008 agreement with
Biman, Boeing was to supply four Boeing-777 planes by December 2013.
Biman signed contracts for 10 new generation aircraft, including
four 777-300ERs (extended range), four 787-8 dreamliners and two 737-
800s. Owing to aircraft shortage, Biman had to trim its flight on
a number of international routes in past few years. Apart from New
York, it also stopped flying to and from Frankfurt, Paris and Tokyo.
The list grew longer with recent suspension of Dhaka-Delhi and
Dhaka-Bangkok flights, reducing Biman's international destinations to
16. Also, it has reduced flight frequencies on global routes.
Biman currently has four DC 10-30s, two Airbus A310-300s and two
Fokker F-28s in all and a number of the aircraft often go out of
service due to technical faults.
