Biman plans to expand network

Biman Bangladesh Airlines has taken up a plan to increase flight frequencies on financially viable routes and expand network to all key commercial and capital cities in the region.

As part of the plan, the national flag carrier has already increased its weekly Kuala Lumpur flights to 10 from seven and Kolkata flights to 14 from seven, said Biman's new Managing Director Kyle Heywood.

Other cities to which Biman would have more frequent flights are Jeddah, Dammam, Riyadh, Bangkok and Singapore. Some of the cities are already seeing increased number of flight and the others would see it soon.

In his first press briefing since he took the job in January this year, Heywood yesterday said Biman suspended its operation on Dhaka-Rome route last week as it was incurring a loss of $10 million a year.

“We will be looking for a very advanced plan for other destinations in South Asia, Far East and an option for China with the availability of two brand new aircraft later this year or early next year,” Heywood, also the chief executive officer of Biman, told the briefing at Biman's headquarters Balaka Bhaban.

Two brand new Boeing 737s were supposed to join Biman in the winter, he added.

As part of a deal with Boeing to purchase 10 aircraft, the US plane maker is supposed to deliver the two 737s within this year. Biman has already received four Boeing 777-300ERs (extended range) aircraft from Boeing.

“We have been mandated by the government to be a profitable organisation and we have been working on this,” Heywood said, adding that the passenger revenue marked a 38 percent rise in the first three quarters of the current fiscal year compared to that of last year.

He also said cargo revenue was also 15 percent up.

The second British CEO of Biman, after Kevin Steele, also said their target was to make a fleet with younger aircraft which is a key to maintain reliability, on time performance and profitability.

He said the average age of aircraft in the fleet would stand at 7.9 years later this year. In 2010, the average age was 24.7 years that came down to 10.9 at the end of last year, he added.

On ground services, he said the level of services being delivered was below the standard. He added that they had ordered some new equipment to be delivered in the next couple of weeks to improve ground services.

Regarding technical fault in a newly acquired Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft that forced Biman to cancel its inaugural domestic flight and delayed several others, Heywood said the technical fault was unexpected but it could have happened to any aircraft.

Biman fixed the problem after a day and put the aircraft in service, he added.

On media reports that Biman could have bought two Dash 8 aircraft with the money it would be spending for leasing two Dash 8s for the next five years, he said the two aircraft were manufactured in 2011 and the lease amount was absolutely justified considering the age of the aircraft.

Talking about resuming direct flights to New York, Heywood said the authorities in Bangladesh had yet to get US Federal Aviation Authority's approval to that end.

He, however, believes direct flights to New York would not be profitable for Biman.

Replying to a query, he said, “We can reduce corruption through better management and my job for the next couple of years is to make that happen.”

In response to another query about measures taken to check gold smuggling, the Biman boss said he had already sent a security team to Dubai as it was the most common spot from where gold was being smuggled into Dhaka.

He further said Biman had launched a special security check for passengers and ground staff including cleaners and their cleaning gears in Dubai to check smuggling using Biman's aircraft.