Biman seeks 2 more months

Biman has sought two more months from Boeing for making a $114 million pre-delivery payment for two new 777-300ER planes against the aircraft manufacturer's mid-April deadline.
“We have asked Boeing to extend the time up to June,” said Muhammad Zakiul Islam, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer of Biman Bangladesh Airlines. He blamed fund crunch for the failure in paying the amount.
The pre-delivery payment was supposed to be made in October-November 2011, two years prior to the delivery of the new aircrafts worth $308 million. As the deadline had expired, Boeing wrote to Biman but the latter did not respond.
This prompted Boeing to send a delegation to Dhaka. In a meeting with Biman, the delegation said if the airlines failed to pay the amount by April 16 they would not be able to deliver the aircraft by 2013 as per agreement.
During the last caretaker government rule, Biman signed a deal with the US aircraft maker on procuring 10 aircrafts by 2019 at a cost of $1.3 billion aiming at making the airlines profitable by replacing its age-old fuel-guzzling fleet.
As part of the purchase deal, Boeing has already delivered two new Boeing 777-300ER aircrafts in October and November last year.
But for the purchase of the third and fourth planes Biman now needs a lender and to convince the lender it needs the government to be the guarantor.
“Once the finance ministry gives the guarantee, we will invite request for proposal and select the lowest bidder for the loan,” said the Biman MD.
Biman sources said the national flag carrier owed over Tk 500 crore to 36 local and foreign organisations because of various purchases and maintenance costs. A good number of staff, including pilots, had started demonstrations against the board of directors and chairman of the airlines alleging that Biman is incurring losses due to their inefficiency.
The Biman MD, however, said they are up to date on the payments of instalments against the loan it took for the purchase of the first two aircraft.
The national flag carrier has to pay a three-month instalment of Tk 120 crore for the aircraft.