The Biman Bangladesh Airlines has got clearance of the US authorities concerned to resume Dhaka–New York–Dhaka flights that have remained suspended since July 2006.
‘We have completed all formalities to resume flights on the Dhaka-New York route,’ the civil aviation and tourism secretary in-charge Shafique Alam Mehdi told New Age on Tuesday.
Biman is now making preparations for operations at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, he added.
When his attention was called to media reports based on WikiLeaks’ release of diplomatic cable on the Boeing deal, the secretary declined comments.
He, however, claimed that resumption of flights on the suspended route now depends on the national flag carrier as it has recently got the clearance from the US authorities.
‘We have already leased one new generation aeroplane and another one is in the process for flight operation on the Dhaka-New York route,’ he added.
Biman signed a contract with Boeing in 2008 during the immediate-past interim regime to procure 10 new generation aircraft for $1.31 billion to strengthen its fleet. The deal was finalised through negotiations on the basis of an unsolicited offer.
US diplomats have on several occasions intervened to convince foreign governments to buy aircraft from Boeing rather than its European rival Airbus, the newly released diplomatic cables said.
The cables, obtained by the New York Times from WikiLeaks, document several incidents in which diplomats were involved in haggling over the billion-dollar deals seen as key to US economic growth.
One cable reportedly describes Bangladesh’s prime minister Sheikh Hasina demanding landing rights for its national carrier at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport as a condition to a Boeing deal.
‘If there is no New York route, what is the point of buying Boeing?’ she was quoted as saying in a November 2009 cable.
The deal went through but so far Biman has not been given the landing rights, the newspaper said.
The US plane maker Boeing was expected to deliver two new generation aircraft — Boeing 777s — in November and December 2011 as part of a purchase deal with the airlines, said a Biman official.
Under the deal, Biman would procure four 777-300ERs (extended range), four 787s and two 737-800s.
The BNP-led alliance government had suspended the loss-making route of the then Biman Bangladesh Airlines, now a public limited company, on July 29, 2006, amid vehement protests by Bangladeshi expatriates in the United States.
Earlier in August 2009, the civil aviation and tourism minister, GM Quader, said that it was a political commitment of the Awami League government to the people that Biman’s flights to and from the American city would be resumed.
He then said that Biman would be able to resume flights on the Dhaka-New York route in the first week of October 2009 as the US authorities had agreed to provide slots [permission for landing and taking off] at JFK International Airport from the month.
Due to perennial financial losses and serious shortage of aircraft, the authorities closed down flights on the Dhaka–New York route.
According to an estimate of the airlines, each of the Dhaka–New York flights by DC10 caused a financial loss of Tk 55 lakh, said a Biman official.
