Bangladesh's sole private carrier, GMG Airlines, is finalising plans for a long-awaited launch of international services after securing new operating rights. The airline says that it hopes to add international services in July with flights between Chittagong and the Indian city of Kolkota, in competition with national carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
GMG was given the rights to the route recently and the carrier is, meanwhile, continuing to press for more rights to serve India.
Approval to fly to Kolkota came in a second tranche of international rights awarded to GMG by the Bangladeshi government. In its first award early this year, GMG was given rights to serve a handful of secondary points in India, the Maldives, Thailand and Sri Lanka, on Dhaka-Chennai-Colombo, Dhaka-Colombo-Male and Chittagong-Chiang Mai routings.
The airline says it needs jet aircraft to operate on these routes, adding that it is negotiating to lease Fokker 100s. It is able to serve Kolkota from Chittagong using its Bombardier Dash 8 turboprops, however, given the short flying time between the two cities.
GMG was launched early in 1998 by the local GMG Group following a deregulation of the local air transport sector. Although other private operators were set up in Bangladesh in the 1990s, only GMG remains as a domestic competitor to Biman.
The private carrier had for years been pressing the Bangladeshi government for rights to operate cross-border flights, but its applications were repeatedly rejected by Dacca.
Source: Airline Business
