600 Biman fliers left stranded
Nearly 600 passengers are stranded at hotels in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dhaka after Biman was forced to use a smaller aircraft on two routes.
The problem appeared when the civil aviation ministry refused to give a 24-year-old leased Boeing 747-200 extension of waiver for registration with the ministry, which forced Biman to halt its flights with the aircraft.
The plane was running on Dhaka-Jeddah and Dhaka-Dammam-Riyadh routes.
To bail the passengers out, Biman deployed one of the DC-10s it has. However, the Boeing had the capacity to carry 542 passengers while the DC-10 can only carry 314 people.
The passengers whom the DC-10 could not carry were being sent to hotels and Biman expects around 400 to join them in the next two days. Those passengers were put on later flights. This has been going on since June 14.
This would cause Biman around Tk 22.50 lakh financial loss approximately, said Biman Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Muhammad Zakiul Islam.
"We expect the stranded passengers to be able to reach their destinations within a week," he said.
Insiders say that the ministry had earlier given a six-month permission to operate flights with the Boeing, without having it registered, to ensure hassle-free hajj flights last year.
That permission expired on May 2, 2010 but Biman, without receiving official consent of the ministry, extended the lease of the aircraft from the Nigeria-based Kabo Air for another two months and used it until June 13.
"We have given permission for six months considering smooth operations of hajj flights. But Biman has extended the lease period for two months without receiving our approval. It has also continued flights with the aircraft even after the expiry of permission period," said a senior official of the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism.
Preferring to remain anonymous, the official said the ministry rejected Biman's plea to extend the waiver for registration.
Asked why Biman did not take any alternative plan, the Biman MD said, "We did not expect the ministry to not give permission."
However, Jamal Uddin Ahmed, chairman of Biman board, said, "We have asked for extension of the permission several times after signing the lease agreement but the ministry remained unresponsive. On June 2, the ministry declined to extend the permission."
Jamal, also former chief of air staff, claimed that the aircraft churns out profit for Biman. "Until April, we have earned a net profit of Tk 58 crore using the aircraft," he said.
He claimed that Biman has clearance from the civil aviation authority to use the plane until July 2 but the management halted the flights with the Boeing 747-200 as the ministry refused to give consent.
The plane was leased on the condition of using minimum 200 block hours (a service hour of an aircraft, measured as an hour after leaving the departure gate and before arriving at the destination gate) per month. The plane has been flown for about 2,200 block hours with payments of $5,300 to Kabo Air for each block hour.
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