Biman's Palki gets off to a mixed start

State-owned Biman's newly purchased Boeing 'Palki' returned yesterday with an inspiring 403 passengers, but the airline carried a frustrating 44 passengers on its opening flight to Manchester on Wednesday.
Passengers occupied 34 out of the aircraft's 35 business class seats on the return flight that landed at Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 1:10pm, around an hour behind schedule.
Most travellers expressed satisfaction over the new aircraft's seating, decoration and services to Biman's top officials who were present at the airport to welcome the passengers of the opening flight and get their feedback.
However, some of the passengers were dissatisfied with the behaviour of the cabin crew.
This prompted some passengers to request Biman officials to take measures to be punctual and remove its bad reputation of delaying.
The officials, however, said turbulent weather in Manchester and a programme to celebrate the opening flight there caused the delay.
"Apart from delay, everything was good. It is a good aircraft and the service was also good," said Tanvir Rahman, a passenger of the flight who works in London.
BNP leader Moudud Ahmed who was also on the flight said everything particularly its spacious seats were very good.
Another passenger who only identified her as Wahida said: "The plane is new, but the service remained as it was. The cabin crew's behaviour is little bit rude."
Some of the passengers had broken some armrest skins of the 419-seat aircraft, alleged the cabin crew members. The crews showed some of the broken skins to the journalists who entered into the Boeing when all passengers came out.
On the poor number of outbound passengers, Mazharul H Choudhury, director for customer services of Biman, said a large number of people usually visit home during Eid vacation, but very few go out.
On the broken armrest skins, he said those were purchased from a renowned US company. But the passengers' loaded hand luggage damaged the skins. "We'll repair those soon."
Biman officials said the new generation Boeing 777 primarily will fly to four destinations in Europe: London, Manchester, Rome and Milan.
The new aircraft will operate non-stop flights on Dhaka-London-Manchester-Dhaka route on Wednesdays and Saturdays while another Airbus will be operated on Sylhet-Dhaka-Dubai-London route on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
From November 14, Boeing 777 will fly twice a week on Dhaka-Rome-Milan-Dhaka route.
The ticket fare on Dhaka-London-Manchester-Dhaka route is $1,575 for the business class and $900 for the economy class, while on Dhaka-Rome-Milan-Dhaka route it is $1,750 for the business class and $1,000 for the economy class.
Biman has reopened its Dhaka-London-Manchester-Dhaka route that remained stalled since March 2007.