Budget carrier Bahrain Air is set to start flights from Bangladesh from March 17, officials said.

Initially, the airline will operate three flights from Dhaka and four from Chittagong to Bahrain every week, said Abdul Kader, chairman of Flight Link, the local representative of the carrier.

Bahrain Air, a privately owned national carrier in Bahrain, has decided to start Bangladesh operations as part of its move to net one million passengers by reaching new destinations this year, according to Flight Link.

With the entry of the airline, the number of low-cost carriers will reach four in Bangladesh after Air AsiaX, Air India Express and Air Arabia.

"The cost will be at least 25 percent less than that of other carriers,” said Mahmudul Hasan Sohel, manager of Flight Link, the general sales agent of the airline in Bangladesh.

Bahrain Air was incorporated in Bahrain in July 2007. It is the first privately owned national carrier in the Gulf state with affordable fares in both premium and economy classes, and

operates from Bahrain to several destinations, using a modern fleet of eight Airbuses.

The airline carried some 750,000 passengers in 2009, around 200,000 less than its initial forecast, said Ibrahim Alhamer, the carrier's managing director, during Bahrain air show in January this year.

"Though there is growth, there is a lot of capacity being offered in the markets by start-ups and existing airlines adding more frequencies to protect their market share," Alhamer said.

He said Bahrain Air plans to add Dhaka and Chittagong in Bangladesh, and Istanbul in Turkey as new destinations in 2010, which would help the airline reach its one-million-passenger target.

Bahrain Air is a small regional airline that mostly competes with the country's national carrier, Gulf Air.

Bahrain is an important destination for Bangladeshi expatriate workers who remitted over $157 million in fiscal ZOOSOB and $85 million in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

sajjad@thedailystar.net