Biman to take one aircraft on lease for Hajj flights

The Biman Bangladesh Airlines is set to take lease of one wide-body aircraft having 450 seats or above for Hajj operation this year. The Biman board of directors in a recent meeting took the decision and a request for proposal (RFP) has already been floated seeking suitable bidders.
An official of the national flag carrier told the FE the Biman authorities reached a decision to take lease of only one aircraft this year as they have available airplanes to carry the Hajj pilgrims.
"We have some good preparations to operate the Hajj flights this year as the Biman has now more airplanes than previous years. Last year, we took lease of three aircraft to operate the Hajj flights," he said.
The lease period will be about three months and first pre-Hajj flight of the aircraft is likely to be operated on August 27 next as the holy Hajj would begin on October 1. And the last post-Hajj flight of the aircraft would be on November 8, sources said.
According to the RFP, the nature of lease would be on ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance and Insurance) basis under which a total of 60-70 flights will be operated.
A total of 101,758 Bangladeshis will perform Hajj this year. Of them, some 10,000 pilgrims will perform the pilgrimage under government management while 91,758 under private arrangement.
Last year, the Biman carried about 44,000 Hajj pilgrims out of about 90,000. However, how many pilgrims would be carried by Biman is yet to be fixed this year, said the sources.
Though 127,000 Bangladeshis were expected to perform Hajj this year, the Saudi government has cut the number of pilgrims from different countries because of maintenance work at the Kaba Sharif, added the sources.
The Biman faced trouble in the previous years to maintain its regular schedule during the Hajj period since it had few aircraft. But, this year it has available airplanes.
"We are more cautious this year. With our seven aircraft, two more Boeings are going to join the Biman fleet soon as the national flag carrier signed a deal with the Egypt Air last month," a Biman official said.  Last year, the Biman took lease of three aircraft from three companies which were the Navico Asia Pacific of New Zealand, the Kabo Air of Nigeria, and the Eagle Express Air of Malaysia.
The RFP said the expected aircraft must not be more than 20 years old as on August 27, 2014 and would carry a total of about 30,000 Hajj pilgrims combining both pre-and post-Hajj phases.
In case the bidder is not the owner of the offered aircraft, it must submit a letter to the effect that the owner has authorised the bidder to lease the aircraft. The last date of application submission on April 20, 2014, added the RFP.