Two more Boeing aircraft for Biman from next month

Two more Boeing aircraft are going to be added to the Biman Bangladesh Airlines fleet from next month, top officials said Saturday.  
The Biman authorities are going to sign a deal with the Egypt Air this week for taking two Boeing 777-200 aircraft on lease for five years.
The two Boeing aircraft are likely to operate between Dhaka and New York.
Biman Managing Director (MD) Kevin Steele told the FE that the deal will be signed this week, and the aircraft will be delivered next month.
"The Biman is taking the two B777-200ER aircraft from Egypt Air, and the contract will be signed in next two days," he said.
Earlier, the Biman authorities took a decision for taking dry lease of two Boeing aircraft from Egypt Air to resume New York flights from June next.
Biman MD announced the decision at a press conference last month and the deal was scheduled to be signed early this month.
However, the Biman board of directors (BoDs) in a meeting postponed the decision saying that it will be impossible to resume the New York flight according to the deal with Egypt Air as the dry lease would not fulfil the requirements of the US authorities.
The Biman BoDs meeting suggested the Biman authorities to update the deal process which will be appropriate to resume New York flight and the agreement papers have been updated accordingly, sources said.
Director (Customer Services) of Biman AM Mosaddique Ahmed told the FE that discussions on concluding the agreement with Egypt Air is presently in its final stage.
"As our preparation is almost complete, hopefully the agreement will be signed soon," he said.  
About the resumption of New York flight, he said it is important to us. But, it seems difficult to resume the flight soon as Biman is a category 2 airlines according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
If Biman wants to resume New York flight, it has to take wet lease not dry lease. The lease agreement with Egypt Air is a dry one which only provides aircrafts but doesn't take the responsibility of management, sources said.
"We are exploring all probable and viable options, and continuously maintaining liaison with the relevant authorities in the USA. It is expected that we will be able to firm up our plans soon," Mr Ahmed said.  
Biman stopped flying to New York after Bangladesh  was banned by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in 1996.
Biman MD, also Chief Executive Officer, announced that the New York flights will resume from June next and selling of tickets will start from this month.
"We planned to start sale of tickets for our New York flights sometime during first half of February," Mr Steele told.
But it turned impossible due to uncertainty in getting green signal from the US authorities to resume New York flights.