Regent Airways to go global next month

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Regent Airways Wednesday arranged a press conference to announce the opening of the sale of Dhaka-Malaysia-Dhaka air tickets. Malaysian Ambassador to Bangladesh Madam Norlin Binti Othman, Regent Airways Managing Director Mr. Mashruf Habib, Chief Executive

Regent Airways, one of the country's private airlines, is set to spread its wings to fly beyond the border by launching its debut international flight to Malaysia next month after two years' operation on domestic routes. "The airline has procured two 126-seat next generation Boeing 737-700 ER aircraft from the US for six years on dry lease," CEO of the airline Imran Asif told a press conference in the city Wednesday, reports BSS. The debut flight RX782 will depart on July 7 from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 12:30 midnight (local time) and the return flight RX783 will depart next day from Kuala Lumpur at 8:20 am (local time), he said. The cabin configuration consists of 12 business class and 114 economy class seats, he said, adding that customers can purchase economy class tickets by Tk 27,500 and business class by Tk 55,000 both round trip. The airline has also planned to operate flights on Bangkok, Hong Kong, Singapore and Kolkata routes from this year, Mr Asif said. "To maintain international standard we will provide flight catering from Biman Flight Catering Centre (BFCC) which is the only international standard flight catering in Bangladesh," he said. The airlines has a plan to operate one flight to Kuala Lumpur each day and four flights each for Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok every week with Boeing 737 aircraft, Mr Asif said. "We have planned to start flight on Kolkata route from this August with Dash-8 aircraft," he added. Regent Airways had inaugurated its first domestic flight in November, 2010. The airline has been operating flights between Dhaka and Chittagong, Sylhet, Cox's Bazar and Jessore with two Dash-8 aircraft. With the Regent Airways endeavour, the number of the country's international route airlines stands at three. At present, state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines and private carrier United Airways have been operating flights on international routes.