The Biman management at a meeting with State Minister for Civil Aviation Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir decided to float tender by tomorrow for dry lease of two aircraft in a bid to recover from the schedule disarray caused by grounding of its three DC-10s and one airbus.

The Biman also made an impromptu decision to reduce flight frequencies on three international routes, cutting one flight from Dhaka each from the weekly two flights to New York, six to London and seven to Jeddah.

While the reduction on Dhaka-London and Dhaka-Jeddah routes comes into effect immediately, that on the Dhaka-New York route will be made effective from March 13 as passengers have already booked tickets up to then.

The Biman will also review its whole flight schedule and go for further cuts in frequencies on other international routes between February 21 and March 27. The national airlines is expecting to gear up its poor fleet situation prior to the commencement of next summer schedule from March 28.

Failing to arrange any aircraft, the Biman cancelled its scheduled flight of Dhaka-Dubai-Brussels-New York route last night and feared delay in its next flight scheduled for this afternoon.

The Biman DC-10 aircraft grounded in Brussels en route New York last Wednesday is expected to return home by today after necessary repairing, official sources said. However, the two other DC-10s and one airbus still remained in hangar.

Talking to the BBC Bangla service last night, Mirza Fakhrul Islam acknowledged failures in Biman's fleet planning and inability to procure sufficient aircraft due to financial insolvency.

He claimed that there was no interference from his ministry into Biman management but refrained from commenting on what had happened before he took the office.