Resumption of Dhaka-New York flights of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on June 4 this year has become uncertain due to “technical problems.”
Biman failed to begin tickets sales on January 30 as was scheduled before for the flights.
Kevin Steele, managing director of Biman, says the tickets sale could take at least one more month to start.
“I can’t give any firm date for sales as yet, I am afraid, (it could take) at least another month,” said Steele in reply to an email on Saturday.
As Biman is a category-2 carrier according to SUA Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), it brought two Boeing aircrafts from category-1 Egypt Airlines on a lease for the route.
No category-2 aircrafts are allowed to land on a New York airport by the FAA. However, the lease agreement with Egypt aircrafts was a dry one which only provides aircrafts but doesn’t take the responsibility of management.
But the US authority has set for Biman a condition of wet lease agreement under which the lessor also takes the responsibility of management of the aircrafts supplied.
Biman sources said this problem has been delaying the re-start of Dhaka-NY flights.
Biman’s MD announced last month that the national flag carrier was planning to resume Dhaka-NY flights on June 4 after an eight-year break. The flights were grounded in 2006.
Meanwhile, the board meeting held on January 28 did not approve the flight resumption as the directors wanted to dicuss the matter further.
Biman Chairman Air Marshal Jamal Uddin Ahmed presided over the meeting, the first one after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had reshuffled the board of directors.
In the email, Steele said the board had simply asked for some more information on the leases.
“So, they have neither approved nor rejected [the plan].”
On December 2, 1997, FAA listed Biman Bangladesh Airlines as a category-2 carrier.
The dry leasing arrangement is where the supplier provides an aircraft without insurance, crew, ground staff, supporting equipment, maintenance, etc.
On the other hand, the wet leasing is where the lessor provides aircraft, complete crew, maintenance, and insurance to the airline, with payments on an hourly basis.
According to initial planning, the first aircraft of Egypt Airlines will arrive in February and the other in March.
Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Rashed Khan Menon however assured that Dhaka-NY flights would resume soon as it is top priority of the ministry.
“Don’t worry, Biman will fly on this route soon again. But we have to maintain some formalities before,” he said in response to question from the Dhaka Tribune.
Biman, which has been making losses for a long time, recently requested the government to allow it a commercial borrowing of $200m to help overcome the financial crisis.