Biman Bangladesh Airlines is unlikely to reopen the suspended flights on five domestic routes in November as it failed to procure aircraft.
Biman had initiated a request for proposal (RFP) thrice to take lease of two small, fuel efficient turbo-propeller aircraft for operating flights on the domestic routes.
But it failed to take lease of the turbo-prop aircraft through RFP process as no leasing company expressed their interest, Biman officials said.
The Biman authorities have recently decided to take direct lease of the aircraft, they said.
On June 10, Biman had floated tender for taking lease but only two companies responded. Again, it floated tender for the second time on July 9 when no company responded.
For the third time, Biman floated tender on August 29 and it got no response to that.
Earlier, Biman managing director Kevin Steele at a press conference on May 27 announced that Biman would reintroduce flights on the suspended domestic routes including Chittagong, Sylhet, Jessore, Rajshahi and Syedpur in next November. Biman would start selling
tickets for those domestic destinations within two months.
He also said that it is possible to make Biman profitable on domestic routes though Biman would have to compete with three other private airlines.
Kevin said, ‘The demand of passengers would increase if we ensure the time schedule of departure and arrival.’
Eventually, Biman board of directors had decided to purchase two new small and fuel efficient aircraft. But they cancelled the decision due to financial crunch.
Later, the board had decided to take lease of two new 50-seater turbo-propellers and Biman floated the tender for that.
A Biman official, seeking anonymity, told New Age that it is not possible to initiate the flights on domestic routes in November as Biman is yet to get lease of the two turbo-prop aircraft.
He also said that Biman authorities have recently decided to take direct lease without RFP for procuring the aircraft quickly. They have
already started to contact with the international companies to take direct lease.
He expected that the leasing process would be accomplished soon.
Biman stopped the five domestic routes out of seven in 2007 due to aircraft shortage and revenue loss. In 2012, Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar route was also closed down.
Earlier, Biman operated five flights weekly on Dhaka-Jessore route, two flights weekly on Dhaka-Barisal and dalily one flight on Dhaka-Rajshahi-Syedpur routes.
-With New Age input
