Biman Bangladesh Airlines-- the national flag carrier - is planning to suspend its recently opened Dhaka-Frankfurt flights as the route has been incurring losses since its reopening in April last after 10 years of suspension, a Biman source said.
Biman also kept some other loss-making routes including Dhaka-New Delhi, Dhaka-Kolkata, Dhaka-Hong Kong and Dhaka-Yangon under scrutiny whether to continue or stop.
Though Biman General Manager Mosharraf Hossain did not confirm the decision about the suspension, sources said Biman board has recently decided to suspend Dhaka-Frankfurt flight as soon as possible.
"I do not know about such decision…so I can't confirm it now," said Mosharraf Hossain.
The re-opened Dhaka-Rome-Frankfurt route has been incurring a big loss of Tk21 million per flight which is the highest loss on a route.
After 10 years of suspension, Biman Bangladesh Airlines started flight operation between Dhaka and Frankfurt on April 1, this year.
A brand new Boeing 777-300 aircraft left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on that day for Frankfurt of Germany.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines started two flights a week -- Monday and Friday on the route with a brief stopover at Rome.
The aircraft has 384 economy and 35 business class seats. Of them, 248 economy class seats and 34 business class seats were purchased for Rome and Frankfurt. Biman first brought the Dhaka-Frankfurt route within its network in 1986 and then went for suspension as it was incurring losses.
But this route has incurred losses amounting to Tk 400 million to date as the flight drew a very small number of passengers.
According to a Biman source, the authorities didn't conduct any market survey before resumption of the route.
"No prior survey was initiated, but they reopened it. We don't know if it would make profit or incur loss again," the source said.
The source said there were disagreements in the board during resumption of the flight without any market survey, but the then managing director started the route on his own.
Sources at the national flag carrier said some important destinations including New Delhi, Kolkata, Hong Kong and Yangon, were on the suspension list.
The airlines has already stopped selling tickets and withdrawn its general sales agents from some of the cities.
The Biman sources said Hong Kong flight loses Tk 3.4 million every flight, Delhi loses Tk1.4 million, Kolkata loses Tk 1million and Yangon loses Tk 4.4 million.
The recent board meeting also suggested reducing weekly flights on other loss-making routes.
Currently, the flag carrier operates flights in more than 18 destinations overseas.
Biman plans to suspend Dhaka-Frankfurt flights due to continuous losses
Ismail Hossain | Published: June 21, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
Share if you like