Biman takes northern route to fly to London
Friday, 16 April 2010
Mashiur Rahaman
The state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines has finally decided to take the shorter 'northern route' for its Dhaka-London-Dhaka flights to cut the additional operation cost that the national flag carrier paid for every trip.
Biman's central control (GMCC) sent an email to the aircraft leasing company, Euro Atlantic Airways (EAA) on April 8, directing it to operate the leased Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on Dhaka-London-Dhaka route through the northern air-route with immediate effect, an official told the FE.
Ignoring expert opinion, the national airline started the Dhaka-London-Dhaka operation on February 6 this year with its newly acquired 323-seater Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on the longer southern route.
"The national flag carrier cannot operate on the shorter route as it did not have over-flying permissions from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia," the official said quoting a Biman email to the leasing company EAA on January 18.
The southern route is 261 nautical miles (483.4km) longer than the northern route. It takes Biman at least extra 2.25 hours per trip (Excluding taxi-time) to cover the additional distance, burning 15.764 tonnes of fuel worth US$12611.2. Besides, Biman has been paying an additional US$14412.8 per trip for the extra hours according to the wet-lease agreement with the leasing company EAA.
The April 8 email also mentioned that Biman had regained over flying permission from Turkmenistan (PERM NO: GC/7/2228/060410), while over flying permission from Ukraine is not required as Biman has to submit its flight plan to Ukraine CAA just four hours before the taking-off.
Moreover, over flying permission from Russia was also not required in the case of northern route that over flies high sea, the email to EAA said.
If obtaining clearances from these three countries were so simple why then Biman preferred to operate on the longer southern route that cost the company an additional US$ 11.20 million till date? Aviation experts questioned.
In between February 6 and April 12, Biman operated 28 flights with the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Flying through the northern route on April 13, Biman official confirmed that it took only 10.10 minutes to reach London from Dhaka. It used to take about 11.10 minutes to reach the destination through southern route.
Normally, route finalisation passes through several departments, including planning, flight operation and central control. How none of these 'experts in aviation industry' took notice of it? Experts suspect that the attempt was driven by corruption.
"If it was a ploy to squander Biman's hard-earned money then it remains to be seen how the administration takes action against the culprits," one expert said.
Biman now operates five flights on Dhaka-London-Dhaka route in a week, operating three of them with Boeing 777-200ER and two with Airbus A310-300. It took the wide-body Boeing 777-200ER on wet-lease from Lisbon-based Euro Atlantic Airways against $6,400 per block hour.
The state-run Biman Bangladesh Airlines has finally decided to take the shorter 'northern route' for its Dhaka-London-Dhaka flights to cut the additional operation cost that the national flag carrier paid for every trip.
Biman's central control (GMCC) sent an email to the aircraft leasing company, Euro Atlantic Airways (EAA) on April 8, directing it to operate the leased Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on Dhaka-London-Dhaka route through the northern air-route with immediate effect, an official told the FE.
Ignoring expert opinion, the national airline started the Dhaka-London-Dhaka operation on February 6 this year with its newly acquired 323-seater Boeing 777-200ER aircraft on the longer southern route.
"The national flag carrier cannot operate on the shorter route as it did not have over-flying permissions from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Russia," the official said quoting a Biman email to the leasing company EAA on January 18.
The southern route is 261 nautical miles (483.4km) longer than the northern route. It takes Biman at least extra 2.25 hours per trip (Excluding taxi-time) to cover the additional distance, burning 15.764 tonnes of fuel worth US$12611.2. Besides, Biman has been paying an additional US$14412.8 per trip for the extra hours according to the wet-lease agreement with the leasing company EAA.
The April 8 email also mentioned that Biman had regained over flying permission from Turkmenistan (PERM NO: GC/7/2228/060410), while over flying permission from Ukraine is not required as Biman has to submit its flight plan to Ukraine CAA just four hours before the taking-off.
Moreover, over flying permission from Russia was also not required in the case of northern route that over flies high sea, the email to EAA said.
If obtaining clearances from these three countries were so simple why then Biman preferred to operate on the longer southern route that cost the company an additional US$ 11.20 million till date? Aviation experts questioned.
In between February 6 and April 12, Biman operated 28 flights with the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft. Flying through the northern route on April 13, Biman official confirmed that it took only 10.10 minutes to reach London from Dhaka. It used to take about 11.10 minutes to reach the destination through southern route.
Normally, route finalisation passes through several departments, including planning, flight operation and central control. How none of these 'experts in aviation industry' took notice of it? Experts suspect that the attempt was driven by corruption.
"If it was a ploy to squander Biman's hard-earned money then it remains to be seen how the administration takes action against the culprits," one expert said.
Biman now operates five flights on Dhaka-London-Dhaka route in a week, operating three of them with Boeing 777-200ER and two with Airbus A310-300. It took the wide-body Boeing 777-200ER on wet-lease from Lisbon-based Euro Atlantic Airways against $6,400 per block hour.