Biman Bangladesh planning to operate to several Indian cities

NEW DELHI: In an ambitious plan to double its fleet and rapidly expand its network, Biman Bangladesh today said it was aiming at operating to several Indian cities, up from two at present, and add flights to Kolkata in a few months.


Biman, Bangladesh's national carrier, plans to start double dailies from Kolkata by October-end instead of five flights a week now, to enable business travellers from both sides to do their work and return home the same day, airline's MD and CEO Kevin John Steele said here.

The airline, which now operates only to Kolkata and Delhi from Dhaka, was also considering expanding frequencies to the Indian capital and planning to launch operations to Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai in the next 18 months, he said. Cities like Guwahati and Bhubaneshwar were also on its radar for turbo-prop operations.

Biman, which has an eight-aircraft fleet, is in a major expansion spree planning to enhance it to 18 planes in the next two years. It would have 12 planes by March next year, he said, adding that it was also "gracefully retiring" four aged DC-10s, one of which would go to a US aviation museum.

The airline, which now has two each of Boeing 777-300s, 737-800s, Airbus A-310s and DC-10s, would induct more B-777s, apart from having six Boeing 787 Dreamliners on order for deliveries by 2018, Steele said.

Biman was also considering flying to "under-served" markets like Iraq and Afghanistan after a stopover in India, utilising Fifth Freedom rights, the Biman chief said. These rights allow an airline to stop in a foreign country, pick up passengers from there and move on to a second country.

Steele, who is the first foreigner to head Biman, said his mandate was to turnaround the loss-making airline into a profitable entity by 2014-15 and "we are expecting to break even this fiscal" after making losses of USD 75 million and USD 25 million in 2011 and 2012 respectively.

Bangladesh government has agreed to allow Biman to go in for an initial public offer (IPO) after attaining profitability and is providing sovereign guarantee for its fleet expansion plans. Steele has earlier served in India as the regional head of British Airways, apart from working in Etihad and a Saudi no-frills carrier.