Biman Bangladesh Airlines once again incurred 9.6% loses in last fiscal year (2013-14) despite having massive plan to reduce its annual losses by 38.86% through offering improved customer services, including strict flight schedules.
Though the management of the national flag carrier had earlier planned to reduce its net lose to Tk118 crore in the fiscal year 2013-14, finally it had to count a loss worth Tk210 crore at the end of the fiscal.
During the period, Biman earned a revenue worth Tk4,002 crore against the huge expenditures of over Tk4,212 crore, according to statistics provided by a senior officer of Biman.
Claiming that the national flag carrier has now been offering better services than ever before, Biman officials, however, noted the airliner was suffering from a major setback against the backdrop of a declining trend in the Middle East bound labours and other passengers.
“Despite the losses because of the political unrest last year, Biman was able to earn highest-ever revenue in the last fiscal,” AM Mosaddek Ahmed, acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Biman, told the Dhaka Tribune recently.
He said: “Our revenue crossed Tk4,002 crore-mark for the first time in the last fiscal, but we could not make it profitable due to huge expenditures on fleet maintenance and fuel price hike.”
After adding new aircrafts to the fleet, Biman also needs to pay more interests on loans and adjust more depreciation.
During the fiscal year 2012-13, Biman had to adjust a depreciation of over Tk189 crore, which was Tk191 crore in the fiscal 2011-12.
Biman has, however, fixed a revenue target of Tk5,500 crore for the current fiscal year.
“Two more new aircrafts will be added in our fleet shortly and at the same time we will also lease two more planes to carry the passengers on time,’’ said an official.
Biman top boss hopes that the Hajj flights and probable new destinations like Dhaka-New York would help it make profitable.
According to Biman officials, though the airliner had estimated Tk118 crore loss at the beginning of the last fiscal year but the actual loss crossed Tk148 crore in the first six months. Then, the Biman authority had re-estimated the losses at Tk156 crore by the end of the fiscal 2013-14. The national flag carrier, however, counted a loss of Tk62 crore in the second half of the last fiscal year.
A senior official said: “Biman has incurred losses around Tk80 crore during the political unrest of November and December last year.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had underscored the need for making it profitable to ensure the survival of the national flag carrier.
Biman has introduced a revenue management system and a consultant is working on it to ensure its revenue.
Recently, the Biman authority informed a parliamentary standing committee that it was going to introduce “revenue integrity” system.
Over the past seven years, Biman incurred its biggest loss of Tk594 crore in the fiscal 2011-12 while it witnessed profits in 2008-09 fiscal.
Biman had incurred losses worth Tk1,182 crore in the fiscal 1972-2007 while the carrier counted its losses of around Tk1,250 crore in between 2009-2014.