Biman Bangladesh Airlines is set to resume its
much waited direct Dhaka-Narita-Dhaka flight tomorrow aspiring to make the
Bangladesh Japan direct air connectivity as a profitable route.
The inaugural flight will take off from Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International
Airport at 11:45pm local time and reach Narita International Airport in Japan
on September 2 at 9:15 am local time.
State minister for civil aviation and tourism M Mahbub Ali will inaugurate the
inaugural flight as the chief guest while Japan ambassador to Bangladesh Iwama
Kiminori to be present.
Biman Board of directors chairman Mostofa Kamal Uddin, Principle Secretary of
the Prime Minister office Mohammad Tofazzel Hossain Miah, civil aviation and
tourism secretary Md Mokammel Hossain, and Civil Aviation Authority Chairman
Air Vice Marshal M Maidur Rahman will also join the opening ceremony.
"Dhaka-Narita could be a promising route for Biman Bangladesh Airlines as we
are expecting passengers from our neighboring countries travelers apart from
the local passengers,” Shafiul Azim, Managing Director and CEO of Biman
Bangladesh told BSS today.
He said Biman has already offer lucrative packages with more weight on baggage
for its Narita route to attract travelers from Nepal and Kolkata.
Besides Bangladesh, there are about 41,000 Indians, and 1.40 lakh Nepalese
nationals living in Japan. So, passengers from India and Nepal can fly to and
from Japan via Dhaka in only six hours," Biman's chief said.
Besides, he said, currently many Japanese companies have been extending to
their business here while numbers of Bangladeshi students are enrolling in
different Japanese universities.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Japan, till 2022, there were 20,954
Bangladeshis living in Japan.
The Biman Chief said the national flag carrier is planning to carry its
passengers to Australia, the west coast of the United States and Canada with
the help of other carriers via Japan through code sharing.
"We are exploring with other airlines interlinking or code sharing so that we
can offer our passengers different routes beyond Japan like a 360 degree
airline," Azim said.
He said currently Biman is working with Japan Airlines Ltd (JAL), All Nippon
Airways and Air Canada for code sharing.
Code sharing is a marketing arrangement in which an airline places its
designator code on a flight operated by another airline, and sells tickets for
that flight. Airlines throughout the world continue to form code-share
arrangements to strengthen or expand their market presence and competitive
ability.
Biman will operate weekly three flights with Dreamliner 787-8 and 787-9
aircrafts.
The flight will depart from Dhaka every Friday, Monday and Wednesday and from
Narita every Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday.
Currently the national flag carrier is negotiating with Airbus, to purchase 10
brand new planes from the European aircraft manufacturer.
At present, Biman has a total of 21 aircraft in its fleet, of these, four are
Boeing 777-300 ER, four are Boeing 787-8, two are Boeing 787-9, six are Boeing
737 and five are Dash 8-400 aircraft.
Source: Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha