Biman Bangladesh Airlines fleet renewal programme

[Jack Ryan]

Biman today operates a modern fleet of Boeing wide bodies passenger aircraft and Bombardier regional turboprops.

In January 2020, Biman expressed interest to buy two more Dash-8 Q400NG short bodied aircraft. This proposal is made to increase the frequency of the flights in domestic and regional routes. Besides, discussion is going on for taking four more Boeing 787-9 that was not taken up by Hainan Airlines and later on passed by Vistara. Besides, the airlines announced buying cargo aircraft in near future.

[AntiDalal]

Upgrading the fleet is fine but they need to do something about the God awful Airports in Bangladesh, especially Dhaka.

Airports are the first glimpse foreigners get of a country, and let's just say currently the first impressions they get isn't too good.

[Asaf Khandekar]

Inside Boeing’s Latest Dreamliner, Biman Bangladesh’s First 787-8

[sibghat_99]

Biman pilled out of buying the additional 4 Dreamliners right now. I think it was a wise decision given the fact that buying additional aircraft on a whim without prior route planning would be counterproductive

[Alim]

12 hours ago, AntiDalal said:

Upgrading the fleet is fine but they need to do something about the God awful Airports in Bangladesh, especially Dhaka.

Airports are the first glimpse foreigners get of a country, and let's just say currently the first impressions they get isn't too good.

The shoddy state of our airports is precisely why Biman is not allowed fo fly direct to many popular destinations despite having a modern fleet.

With money being thrown around for new projects, I do not understand why the government does not revamp the existing terminals.

It is quite painful to look at the faces of foreigners as they experience the filthy facilities at HSIA.

[Syed Amar Khan]

14 hours ago, sibghat_99 said:

Biman pilled out of buying the additional 4 Dreamliners right now. I think it was a wise decision given the fact that buying additional aircraft on a whim without prior route planning would be counterproductive

It is not too difficult to do proper route planning. If Biman opted out of the 4 Dreamliners it will not be a wise decision because such deals may not be availed so easily in the near future.

In terms of route planning Biman should consult with Bangladeshi embassies as well to find out demographics of Bangladeshi nationals in different countries. It may help to carve out a market.

Routes such as Sydney, Tokyo, Iraqi Kurdistan, New York, Dallas (Forth Worth) and Bali should be profitable.

 

[Salahuddin]

Fleet renewal is the first step to a modernize the aviation industry.There no point in getting new planes and bring them to a chaotic airport.

[sibghat_99]

13 hours ago, Syed Amar Khan said:

It is not too difficult to do proper route planning. If Biman opted out of the 4 Dreamliners it will not be a wise decision because such deals may not be availed so easily in the near future.

In terms of route planning Biman should consult with Bangladeshi embassies as well to find out demographics of Bangladeshi nationals in different countries. It may help to carve out a market.

Routes such as Sydney, Tokyo, Iraqi Kurdistan, New York, Dallas (Forth Worth) and Bali should be profitable.

 

 Sydney, Tokyo, New York and Toronto are in the pipeline. I saw Airport authorities installing the scanners necessary to get FAA cat-1 rating so that's not far away. I think they will probably restart one of the european routes. Probably Rome

[Jetfore]

Hopefully, Biman starts flight to Sydney and Toronto. Need that route to be up and running asap

[avicenna]

So no new -9 for Biman?

[rasay]

Not for now. No. It’s not that bad of a decision imo. Biman needs to step up its training and recruitment facilities. This should greatly improve its overall service and set a higher standard for the private airlines to compete with which will inspire more investment and better quality. Current services are quite lacklustre tbh if you’ve flown other international airlines(not including India ofc).

[sibghat_99]

18 minutes ago, rasay said:

Not for now. No. It’s not that bad of a decision imo. Biman needs to step up its training and recruitment facilities. This should greatly improve its overall service and set a higher standard for the private airlines to compete with which will inspire more investment and better quality. Current services are quite lacklustre tbh if you’ve flown other international airlines(not including India ofc).

I think Biman has reached its initial target of beating subcontinental flag carriers like PIA, AI and Sri Lankan which wasn't much of a competition to begin with given the shitshow those 3 are in right now. Biman should get more ambitious and try to go against the big guys now. It won't match them in terms of fleet size but trying to give at least 50%+ service of a middle eastern carrier will be a big win in my opinion

[Aparajita Banerjee]

Somewhere before 2000 Sri Lankan was rebranded with Emirates purchasing a share in the airline for $70m. Unfortunately there was a dispute with the Sri Lankan government and by 2010, Emirates sold its 43.63% stake in the airline back to the Government of Sri Lanka ending all affiliations. Their fleet consists of an all Airbus airliners totaling to 26 aircraft with a further 6 awaiting delivery.

SA is bigger and possibly better than Biman in many ways.

[Dark Carnage]

On 1/26/2020 at 8:03 AM, Alim said:

With money being thrown around for new projects, I do not understand why the government does not revamp the existing terminals

Most probably the existing terminals will go through renovation after completion of the third terminal. 

[sibghat_99]

Sri Lanka has an older average fleet age and are on the course to retire most of their older a320s and a330s within the next few years. Their a350 order got cancelled because of issues within the government and Biman offers a much better hard product in their widebodies

[Darth Nihilus]

4 hours ago, rasay said:

Not for now. No. It’s not that bad of a decision imo. Biman needs to step up its training and recruitment facilities. This should greatly improve its overall service and set a higher standard for the private airlines to compete with which will inspire more investment and better quality. Current services are quite lacklustre tbh if you’ve flown other international airlines(not including India ofc).

It is 100% true that Biman (the Govt) really needs to look at it's airports before buying any new planes right now. The dreamliners they got so far are more than enough to operate the new routes that they plan to take. Once more airports are built, the existing terminals are renovated and security and service is upgraded, Bangladesh can look to be an airline hub much like Dubai. Not saying it will be as successful as Dubai but a lot of Australian, Japanese, Chinese and mainly airlines to our East might prefer Bangladesh over Dubai due to it being cheaper (speculation on my part).

[rasay]

That would be the ideal thing to do but unfortunately not very practical. As the existing space would not just require renovations but an architectural overhaul if its to increase its passenger and plane handling capacity which might be to expensive for the short run. By 2030~33 the airport would be overrun anyway given our economic development persists. 

[rasay]

7 hours ago, Dark Carnage said:

Most probably the existing terminals will go through renovation after completion of the third terminal. 

 

1 minute ago, rasay said:

That would be the ideal thing to do but unfortunately not very practical. As the existing space would not just require renovations but an architectural overhaul if its to increase its passenger and plane handling capacity which might be to expensive for the short run. By 2030~33 the airport would be overrun anyway given our economic development persists. 

Was replying to the one on the top my bad.

[Dark Carnage]

47 minutes ago, rasay said:

By 2030~33 the airport would be overrun anyway given our economic development persists. 

Third terminal project is scheduled to be completed by 2022 which is expected to handle 20 million passengers annually.   

[rasay]

11 minutes ago, Dark Carnage said:

Third terminal project is scheduled to be completed by 2022 which is expected to handle 20 million passengers annually.   

Considered that too in my comment. There was actually an article where they mentioned this. Will post the link if I find it again.

[Dark Carnage]

8 hours ago, rasay said:

Considered that too in my comment. There was actually an article where they mentioned this. Will post the link if I find it again.

So, by 2030 airport will have an annual passenger handling capacity of at least 20+8=28 million. With current handling of around 10 million passengers annually, I do not think it will be more than three times by next 10 years.

[rasay]

29 minutes ago, Dark Carnage said:

So, by 2030 airport will have an annual passenger handling capacity of at least 20+8=28 million. With current handling of around 10 million passengers annually, I do not think it will be more than three times by next 10 years.

Actually it’s gonna be a total of 20 million. The new terminal will have a capacity of handling 12 million by the end of all development phases.

[rasay]

https://www.daily-sun.com/post/449842/Prime-Minister-opens-HSIA’s-3rd-terminal-project-work
Source for the previous comment. ^

[Dark Carnage]

46 minutes ago, rasay said:

Actually it’s gonna be a total of 20 million. The new terminal will have a capacity of handling 12 million by the end of all development phases.

Sorry, I misunderstood. 20 million by 2030 may not be adequate. If the government somehow manage to construct the proposed Bangabandhu airport then the that might solve the problem. But the project seems to be in the dark now.

[Dark Carnage]

Bangladesh revises air service deal with Japan

Flight frequency raised, restrictions dropped

Bangladesh has revised its air service agreement with Japan increasing the weekly flight frequency from two to seven and dropping the third-country restriction on the Dhaka–Tokyo route.

Civil aviation and tourism ministry officials on Monday further told New Age that the Bangladeshi aircraft would also get the scope to operate codeshare flights on the route.

A Bangladesh delegation, led by Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh chairman Air Vice-Marshal M Mafidur Rahman, visited Japan on January 29 and 30 for the revision of the deal.

The CAAB officials said that a codeshare flight was marketed by one carrier and operated by another.

Codeshare flights are based on agreements between airlines on selling seats on each other’s flights in order to provide passengers with a wider choice of destinations, they added.

The CAAB chairman told New Age that the previous deal had allowed them to operate only two flights a week , which would now be seven a week from each of the countries.

‘In the past, Thailand was the mandatory stopover for us but now we can have the stopover in any country as we need,’ said the CAAB chief.

National flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines managing director and chief executive officer Md Mokabbir Hossain said that as the air service agreement was revised the Biman was planning to operate three flights a week on the Dhaka–Tokyo route in the near future.

‘We will operate one flight via Thailand and will also fly directly to Japan,’ said the Biman boss. 

The Biman suspended its service on the Dhaka–Tokyo route in 2006, deeming it not commercially viable.

Now given the enhanced business ties and higher tourist movement between the two countries, the airlines decided to resume its flights on the route, officials said earlier.

The decision came at a time when the two countries saw a rapid rise in their bilateral trade, which is expected to further go up when Japan opens up its labour market to Bangladeshi workers in the future.

Under the previous Bangladesh-Japan air service agreement, the Biman could operate only two flights to and from Japan a week via Bangkok and could drop or take only 30 per cent of the passengers in the middle destination.

On July 30 last year, Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen and his Japanese counterpart Taro Kono in Dhaka discussed the issue of revising the agreement during a bilateral meeting.

According to media reports, there are now more than 270 Japanese companies operating in Bangladesh, 50 per cent higher compared to five years ago.

Bangladesh’s export earnings from Japan too saw an 11.73 per cent increase to $1.13 billion in the FY18, according to Export Promotion Bureau data.

Currently Bangladesh has air service agreements with 53 countries and 17 of them are in operation.