Biman Bangladesh Airlines is going to phase out its two age-old aircraft, Airbus 310, next year due to high fuel consumption.
For the first time in 1986, Biman purchased two brand new twin engine wide body Airbus A310 for its fleet to operate flights across Middle-east, South-East Asia and regional flight.
Later, it bought two more A310s from Singapore Airlines and Air Jamaica.
At the beginning, the two decade-old A310 served the national flag carrier smoothly as the aircraft was fuel efficient.
An engineer of Biman said in the last five years, the A310 fuel consumption on its medium-to-long range flight raised unexpectedly which was unbearable.
In addition, parts and equipment of the aircraft are not available as only a few airlines operate these kinds of aircraft.
Two years ago, Biman management grounded two aircraft due to technical glitch. After that the two were scrapped by the engineering department.
The phaseout of A310 will begin in June 2016 while the last one of its kind will be phased out in November in the same year, according to Biman fleet planning.
Air Marshal Jamal Uddin Ahmed (Retd), chairman of Biman board of directors, told the Dhaka Tribune, “As the aircraft are age-old and consume high fuel, we have no other options but to phase them out.”
Biman began to add new aircraft to its fleet in 2011 when it purchased two Boeing 777-300 ERs. It added two more Boeing 777-300 ER, according to the agreement signed with Boeing company in 2010.
At the end of this year, two more brand new Boeing 737-800 aircraft will be added to its fleet as part of its plan.
Currently, an average fleet age of Biman is 20 years. After revitalising fleet, the average fleet age would be 10 years.
Earlier, the national flag carrier phased out DC-10s which were the backbone of the Biman fleet for nearly a quarter century. Once the fleet numbered six aircraft. Airbus, the manufacturing company of A310, stopped its production in 1998.
In 2007, an A310 carrying 236 passengers and crew members suffered a collapsed nose gear during its take off. 14 people suffered minor injuries in the accident at Dubai International Airport.
Biman is one of Asia’s smallest flag carriers, operating only 10 aircraft on a network of 22 destinations.
