Biman Bangladesh Airlines plans to order four Boeing 777-300ERs and four Boeing 787-8s and expects to finalise a deal soon.
The airline’s chairman, Mahbub Jamil, today held a press conference at Bangladesh’s Ministry of Civil Aviation in which he announced that the airline would order four 777-300ERs and four 787-8s with first deliveries set for 2013 and 2017 respectively, spokespeople at Biman’s Dhaka headquarters tell ATI.
One of the spokespeople says the airline’s board has given in-principle approval for the airline to sign a memorandum of understanding with Boeing, something the carrier hopes to do in the coming days.
Biman has tried for several years to order new aircraft but its efforts in the past were stymied by governments that often balked at the expense of getting new aircraft.
But one of the carrier’s spokespeople says it will now be easier for the airline to get approval because last year it became public limited company, whereas previously it was a public sector corporation.
The company is still 100% government-owned but according to the spokesman it is now sufficient for Biman to proceed with the aircraft deal having board approval.
Biman currently operates a fleet of ageing McDonnell Douglas DC-10s, Airbus A310s and Fokker F28s and in the past 12 months has had to temporarily suspend some services as aircraft have had to be grounded for maintenance.
The carrier’s managing director, M A Momen, was in a board meeting this afternoon and was unavailable for comment.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: FlightGlobal.com
