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GMG aims high, eyes Tkl,350cr turnover

Sohel Parvez
The country's biggest private carrier, GMG Airlines, eyes an ambitious turnover of around Tk 1,350 crore in 2008 as it is set to fly to four new destinations in the Middle East.
"We expect to hit Tk 1,350 crore turnover as we are going to fly to Abu Dhabi, Muscat, Kuwait and Doha in addition to our existing international destinations," said Shahab Sattar, managing director of GMG Airlines, which made Tk 280 crore turnover in 2007.
GMG Airlines, now with a fleet of 7 aircraft, flies to Kolkata, Delhi, Katmandu, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. It also operates on domestic routes.
In 2007, GMG carried 3,72,000 passengers on its international routes compared to 2,16,000 in 2006, a growth of around 72 percent.
The hefty growth was possible due to a steady rise in air traffic in Bangladesh's aviation market, said the GMG managingdirector.
The growth in air traffic, which according to experts is
about 8.0 percent a year, has also encouraged at least four international airlines to begin operations from Bangladesh while three local private airlines started operations last year.
"We are getting passengers from this growth in air traffic," Sattar said.
"We want to start flying to Abu Dhabi in mid April," he said, adding that the airline will start flights to the new destinations after adding another Boeing-747 to its fleet in early April.
Sattar said the company plans to start flights to Muscat in early June while Kuwait and Doha in early August this year.
The GMG managing director hoped that total volume of passengers would reach around 10 lakh in 2008 and helped the carrier hit Tk 1350 crore turnover.
"The net profit that we are expecting to earn from this gross turnover will help us offset our accumulated losses," said Sattar.
At present, the airline has an
accumulated loss of about Tk 45 crore, according to its managingdirector.
Starting in 1998, the GMG Airlines operated flights only on domestic routes for six years and got the permission to operate on international route in 2004.
The permission to start international flights also helped the airline reach breakeven point after an eight-year consistent loss.
"We have reached the break- . even point after we had got the opportunity to fly on internationalroutes.’’
The airline's net profit stood at about Tk 6 crore in 2007, up from below Tk 1 crore a year ago, according to Sattar.
Sohel@thedallystar.net
****The growth in air traffic, which according to experts is about 8.0 percent a year, has encouraged at least four international airlines to begin operations from Bangladesh while three local private airlines started operations last year.****