After a two and half-year halt, the national flag carrier will resume operation of domestic flights from late of next month.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines said it has hired two Dash 8-Q400 crafts to reopen the domestic routes. Tickets would be made available from December 20.
Initially, flights will be operated in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Sylhet routes while Jessore, Rajshahi, Syedpur and Barisal routes are expected to start in February.
Biman had suspended flights in four out of seven domestic routes in 2007 because of aircraft shortage. The last route, Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar, was closed in June 2012.
“We are preparing now to make a restart,” Mohammad Shah Newaz, director (marketing and sales) of Biman, told the Dhaka Tribune.
He said there would be two flights daily in Dhaka-Chittagong route, one in Dhaka-Sylhet and one in Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar route.
Biman has its own offices in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Sylhet. For other cities it’s looking for office rooms and staff as the airlines in the second phase is planning to run flights everyday in Jessore route, four flights a week in Rajshahi and Saidpur routes and two-three flights a week in Barisal route.
“Fare will be competitive with other domestic airlines,” said Shah Newaz.
Following a meeting with Biman board last week, Civil Aviation Minister Rashed Khan Menon said, “The preparation (to resume domestic flights) is at final stage, and in a month we are going to make a restart.”
Biman has hired two crafts with 72 seats each from Egypt’s Smart Aviation. The airlines will also use Dash 8-Q400s aircraft to operate two regional routes -- one to Yangon and another to Kolkata.
The airlines is currently carrying passengers to and from Sylhet and Chittagong with its international flights. Biman is active in 18 international routes with 10 aircraft.
A new private carrier US-Bangla Airlines has already launched domestic flights; another new player, Epic Airways Ltd, aims to begin flights on domestic routes by the end of 2014.
Currently, four private local airlines -- United, Regent, Novoair and US-Bangla -- fly mainly on four domestic routes from Dhaka to Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet and Jessore.
The Dhaka-Chittagong route draws the highest volume of traffic followed by Dhaka-Jessore.
At present, 40,000-50,000 passengers fly on the domestic routes a month, with Dhaka-Chittagong accounting for 70%.
In 2013, some 648,019 people traveled nationally by air, up 10% year-on-year, according to data from Civil Aviation Authority, Bangladesh.