Biman Bangladesh Airlines is going to suspend flights on some loss-making routes and concentrate on Hajj flights, which usually bring in more revenue.
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The airlines has already stopped selling tickets and withdrawn its general sales agents from the four cities, they added.
At the same time, Kathmandu, Bangkok and Rome-Frankfurt flights are also under scrutiny.
At a board meeting on Friday, Biman authorities calculated that the unprofitable routes would lose a further Tk50 crore over the next two months.
“We expressed our concern as Hong Kong loses Tk34lakh every flight, Delhi loses Tk14 lakh, Kolkata loses Tk10 lakh and Yangon loses Tk4 lakh,” a board member told the Dhaka Tribune on condition of anonymity.
The board also suggested reducing weekly flights on the recently re-opened Dhaka-Rome-Frankfurt route, which was incurring a huge loss of Tk2.15 crore per flight.
“When every other carrier is making money from these routes, we are losing money. That is why the board needs to take a tough decision,” the board member said.
On the other hand, Hajj flights are always profitable for Biman, which, along with Saudi Arabian Airlines, enjoys a monopoly for flying pilgrims.
This year,the flag carrier needs to suspend some routes and close a couple as it plans to operate Hajj flights with its own fleet, instead of leasing aircraft like in previous years, a senior executive said.
“Hajj flights will start from the end of August, and before that, we need to rearrange some of our routes that are making losses,” AM Mosaddique Ahmed, acting managing director andchief executive officer of Biman, told the Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
“As we are not leasing any aircraft for Hajj flights this year, we need to reschedule some of our other flights,” he said.
Biman will dedicate three brand new Boeing777 to carry more than 50,000 Hajj passengers. The flights to Jeddah will run from August 27 to November 8.
Another high official said they were also planning to reduce flights from all other routes during the Hajj season.
Biman plans to withdraw one of its five weekly flights to Kuala Lumpur,although the carrier had recently asked to operate seven flights, an official said.
However, some senior Biman executives disagreed with the decision to suspend flights, fearing that they may not be able to resume the flights after the Hajj, and that would be damaging for the national carrier.
At present, Biman operates flights to 19 international destinations.
Meanwhile, Friday’s board meeting also reviewed a proposal from Egypt Air regarding the reopening of the Dhaka-New York route.
A delegation of Egypt Air, led its vice president (planning),presented a proposal to run Dhaka-New York flights with stopovers in Cairo.
According to a board member, Egypt Air officials claimed that the proposed route would not only save six hours every trip, but operating costs would also be less than Biman’s plan to fly to New York via Birmingham, England.
The acting Biman chief said discussions would continue and it would take some time to finalise the much-awaited route.
Biman’s New York flights were grounded in 2006, but the carrier plans to resume the flights this summer.