Biman offers chartered flights on domestic routes to reduce losses
Biman Bangladesh Airlines is currently offering chartered flight services on domestic routes for the very first time in the carrier's history.
The move follows frequent cancellations of scheduled passenger flights because of poor passenger turnout following the government partly resumed domestic flights on three domestic routes from June 1 after more than 8 weeks of suspension because of the coronavirus pandemic.
"Biman Bangladesh Airlines offers chartered flights to domestic destinations for family trips, at a price of BDT 3 lac to BDT 5 lac according to the distance," Tahera Khandaker, Deputy General Manager (PR), Biman said on June 4.
Tahera Khandaker further mentioned that anyone can charter Biman's aircraft for five hours for a brief trip from Dhaka to the seven airports in Bangladesh including Saidpur, Chattogram, Sylhet, Jashore, Rajshahi, Cox's Bazar and Barishal.
"After five hours of ground time, additional charges should be paid," she added.
Tahera said, operating regular flights on domestic routes right now appears economically not viable, due to a shortage of passengers. "In this backdrop, we've made a decision to operate chartered flights rather than operating regular ones on the domestic routes," she added.
The national flag carrier was forced to cancel all of its 46 flights between June 1 and June 4 due to insufficient passengers and due to high prices of tickets.
The maiden flight of Biman on Dhaka-Saidpur route became popular on June 1 with only four passengers up to speed, as the return flight had 20 passengers, said Tahera.
A senior official of Biman said they did not want to operate flights while incurring losses.
"Rather than domestic flights, we are giving priority to use chartered flights on international routes, which is profitable," the state added.
