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Biman's Hajj Flight Management

No operations on 5 routes from Sept 17

Drastic cut in flights on other routes

SHARIFUL ISLAM
The Biman Bangladesh Airlines has decided to suspend its operation in five international routes and slash flights to almost all other routes as a preparation for carrying hajj pilgrims.
The Hong Kong, Delhi, Karachi, Manchester and Milan routes will remain temporarily shut down, from September
17 to November 30.
Biman has been making little profit on the Dhaka-Honk Kong route and incurring an annual loss ofTk3 crore on Dhaka-Delhi and Dhaka-Karachi routes, said Biman officials. They, however, could not give information about the Manchester and Milan routes.
Weekly flights to London, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur. Kuwait, Riyadh, Dammam, Muscat, Kathmandu, Rome, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kolkata have also been significantly cut for the hajj period.
Besides, big aircraft on these routes will be replaced by smaller ones.
Despite all these measures, leaders of the Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab) are worrying about what would happen if technical glitche force a number of flights to remain grounded.
This year around 1.13 lakh devotees will perform hajj. Of them, Biman will carry over 56,000 pilgrims while the Saudi Arabian Airlines, National Air Services Airways, and other airlines will fly the rest.
In an inter-ministerial meeting at the religious affairs ministry on Wednesday, Haab leaders demanded that the government allow other airlines operating from Dhaka to carry a certain number of pilgrims in case Biman or Saudi Arabian Airlines failed.
After the meeting, Biman's acting managing director AM Mosaddique Ahmed told journalists that they had taken preparations and back-up measures to face any problem. He said Biman now has the capacity to fly 58,000 pilgrims.
A Biman official, however, said it would have been better if they had a preparation for carrying around 62,000 pilgrims. Biman was trying to get 14 more slots (the schedule of departure and arrival) at the Jeddah Airport, he said. Biman now has 110 slots.
Wishing not to be named the official said the Haab leaders were raising hue and cry, as hajj agencies would be benefited if their demand was met. The agencies would have to spend $ 800 while they charged each pilgrim $ 1,475 for return ticket.
Biman will carry the pilgrims with its two Boeing 777-300ER (each having 419 seats), a 582-seated Boeing 747, and two DC 1030 aircraft (each having 314 seats) during the season.
About back up, a source said an Airbus would join the fleet on September 15 after a massive overhauling in Singapore while Biman was planning to take lease a 382-seater Boeing 767 by September 20.
The source also said the Biman board had decided to maintain this year's hajj operations with its own aircraft after the flag carrier had failed to take lease of two more Boeing 747 aircraft despite floating several international tenders.
A number of top Biman officials protested against the decision saying that suspending operations in certain routes and slashing flight frequencies would have a disastrous impact.
"I apprehend Biman will lose a huge number of passengers when it resumes operations in the five routes and increases flight frequencies after the hajj operations," said an official of Biman's marketing division wishing anonymity.