Biman in talks with Canadian co on getting two turboprop aircraft

Biman Bangladesh Airlines is now negotiating with a Canadian company for taking lease of two Q400 turboprop aircraft to fully resume domestic flights on its seven routes, a top official said.
After refusal of the request for proposal (RFP) for three times, the national flag carrier floated the proposal again in December last to take on lease two small-size aircraft, and finally got response from de Havilland Canada (DHC), a Canadian aircraft company.   
Biman Managing Director (MD) Kevin Steele expressed his hope for resuming the domestic flights after getting the response from a Canadian company.
"We are currently discussing with a company in Canada, about getting two Q400s for domestic flights," he told the FE.
Earlier, the Biman authorities announced about restarting the domestic flights from November last, and later the time was shifted to March. The authorities missed two dates due to their "inability to acquire smaller aircraft".
Mr Steele, also the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Biman, told the FE that as they had failed to resume the flights at the scheduled time, they would not announce any specific date on their resumption.
"I don't want to be quoted on a starting date, as we have disappointed people previously. We will start as soon as we get the aircraft, with flights on Sylhet, Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Rajshahi, Saidpur, Barisal and Jessore routes," he added.
After getting no response to the RFP, the Biman board of directors took a decision on obtaining the aircraft through direct negotiations.
However, the decision had turned futile due to some 'difficulties'. According to the latest RFP, Biman is looking for taking on dry lease two aircraft with 45 to 80 seats for 5 years. The aircraft should not be over 12 years old, and should be certified by Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) of USA, and European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).    

The national flag carrier suspended its domestic flights on four among the seven routes in 2007 due to continuous losses, and shortage of aircraft. Finally, on September 19, 2012, Biman postponed its flights on the said three routes in order to maintain international schedules.
Later, it resumed domestic flights on a limited number of routes including Dhaka-Chittagong-Dhaka and Dhaka-Sylhet-Dhaka.
Biman is now operating about 30 flights in a week on its domestic routes with large aircraft through its connecting flights in operation on international routes.
The domestic passengers are travelling by modern and spacious aircraft of the national carrier as they board the international connecting flights operating from Dhaka to Middle East via Chittagong, and to Middle East and Europe via Sylhet, Biman sources said.
Biman now operates 11 flights on Dhaka-Chittagong, 14 flights on Chittagong-Dhaka and 5-7 flights on Sylhet-Dhaka routes.
About Biman's plan for resuming the domestic flights, Kevin Steele said: "We will operate morning and evening flights to Sylhet and Chittagong, daily flights to Cox's Bazar, and several flights per week to Jessore, Saidpur, Rajshahi and Barisal."
Besides Biman, three private carriers -- United Airways, Regent Airways and Novo Air -- are also operating flights on the country's domestic routes.