Regent gears up for overseas flights

Regent Airways, the market leader in domestic air travel, plans to introduce international routes by the end of this year.
Given permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB), the carrier initially plans to fly to Malaysia, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Muscat, Nepal, China, Japan and Korea, and bring in at least two new aircraft to serve these routes.
“We are all set to start international operations as soon as possible. We sent a letter to CAAB yesterday for permission to start international operations,” said Imran Asif, CEO of the airline.
Initially, the airline intended to fly to international routes within a year of its inception in November, 2010.
But upon application for approval to CAAB, the airline was informed that it would have to successfully run domestic flights for a year to get the permission to international routes.
The plan was further delayed due to Bangladesh's citation in the significant safety concern (SSC) list -- the 'black list for the aviation industry -- in May 2009 when the country failed an inspection conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
CAAB was unable to give the go-ahead for international routes to any new carrier until Bangladesh was struck off from the list, which eventually happened on Saturday.
“Now that the country has been dropped from the list of countries with unsafe civil aviation systems, we have resumed our application process [with CAAB] to fly to international routes,” said Asif.
Along with issuing the 3-letter International Air Transport Association (IATA) code, a requisite for international operation, CAAB has to conduct an audit to certify that Regent has the infrastructure to support international operation.
Then the civil aviation ministry and the CAAB in conjunction will decide whether the frequency and the routes Regent wants to operate are feasible.
According to the airline's top official, Regent fulfilled every requirement and attained AOC successfully from CAAB, well before its first flight in November 2010.
Asif deems it to be a good time for international operations as the passenger flow from Bangladesh to international routes has been increasing at a 15 percent a year.
“But still local airlines can't tap the full potential due to a lack of capacity, where new airlines will certainly help the condition improve with options,” said Asif.
Not least, the difficulty is sustaining an airline solely upon domestic operations, he said.
Meanwhile, the airline has completed all other preparations, including IATA-standard electronic ticketing, participation in the Global Distribution Systems, participation in IATA Billing and Settlement Plan, Clearing House and appointment of General Sales Agents, he informed.
“And by the end of August, Regent is likely to finalise the brand of aircrafts it's going to bring on lease,” said Asif.
Regent Airways, the newest among local private airlines, has emerged as the preferred carrier for domestic passengers, with routes to Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Jessore and Sylhet.
“We would like to consider ourselves successful by the confidence shown by our passengers, rather than on purely commercial terms, which is sustainable only if we uphold our air travel quality,” Asif said. Owned by Chittagong-based Habib Group, the airline transported more than one-third of the total domestic traffic last year.
“As of June, we have carried more than four lakh passengers in domestic routes. And we hope to enhance the number to five lakh by this November,” said Asif.
According to data from CAAB, local airlines transported 627,000 passengers on domestic routes in 2011, up 20 percent from the previous year -- and the highest since 2008.